The hero taxi driver who survived the Poppy Day suicide bombing in Liverpool told rescuers as he stumbled out the car: ‘Someone has blown me up’.
David Perry, 45, locked terrorist Emad Al Swealmeen, google indexer 32, in his cab outside Liverpool Women’s Hospital at 10.59am on Remembrance Sunday before the suicide bomber set off his device.
Security guard Darren Knowles, bulk index cards who can be seen wearing yellow hi-viz and racing to help Mr Perry in CCTV of the attack, has revealed that the cabbie fell from his car with blood pouring from his neck and ear from a shrapnel wound screaming: ‘I want my wife’.
Relieving the horror of Sunday’s bombing, Mr Knowles, who was on duty at the maternity hospital when Al Swealmeen struck, told The Mirror: ‘David was just so disorientated and confused.
‘He was trying to tell us, ”There is a passenger, there is a passenger”.I was trying to say to him, ”Is he still in there”, and he was saying, ”He has tried to blow me up, he has tried to blow me up”.
‘It all happened in a flash. I was just pumping my tyre up on my car. I saw the taxi pull up as they do.I heard a loud bang and thought it was mechanical failure in the taxi. I thought the engine had caught fire. But then I saw the taxi driver run out. He was panicking and screaming, ”Someone has blown me up”’.
Mr Knowles, 50, who lives with his partner and two of their three children, added: ‘Everyone is calling me a hero but I was just doing my job.’
Liam, 21, and his partner, Steph, 20, were parked in a car just metres from the taxi when the bomb was set off.Liam told the BBC: ‘Explosions just went off and it shook the hospital building.
‘Then I got closer to the car, I could smell the smoke and I could see the man in the back. I went to grab him but he engulfed in flames very quickly. I couldn’t reach a hold of him without setting myself on fire.’
Steph, a student mental health nurse, added: ‘I was like, ”Is there a baby in the back?” And we found out there was a passenger, so everyone was screaming ”999!”’ It’s scary to just think about how things could have been different to be honest.You do struggle with [thinking] ”Is that ever going to happen again? Am I going to get over this?” I’ve said to myself and my family I’m not going to let it affect me.
‘It’s not gonna have a hold on me at all…I do feel very lucky to be alive.’
It comes as counter-terrorism police investigate whether Al Swealmeen, who was allegedly seen at local mosque every day during Ramadan in April while he built a bomb, had experimented with a 7/7-style device as he gathered explosive materials in a rental flat.
The Iraq-born failed asylum seeker’s bomb may have gone off when it was ‘jostled’ as the taxi came to a stop, it emerged last night. A search of Al Swealmeen’s home and an examination of his online purchases showed he was attempting to build a bomb powerful enough to have caused ‘damage, death and destruction’ on a massive scale, according to The Telegraph.
And reports that Al Swealmeen had been seen praying with a Muslim a week before the bombing – is likely to rouse suspicion that his conversion to Christianity in 2017 was a ploy to help him persuade the Home Office to let him stay in the UK.
However, officers have found no evidence that he had any connections to any terrorist group, suggesting he may have been a ‘lone wolf’ radicalised during lockdown.
And police and security services are unsure if Al Swealmeen’s intended target was the maternity hospital or the Remembrance Sunday service at Liverpool Cathedral, which was less than a mile away and was where he had converted to Christianity.
Security guard Darren Knowles (right), who was on duty at the maternity hospital when the bomber struck, said: ‘David Perry (left) was just so disorientated and confused.He was saying, ”He has tried to blow me up, he has tried to blow me up”’
Mr Knowles, who can be seen in CCTV which emerged after the attack wearing yellow hi-viz and racing to help Mr Perry, has revealed that the cabbie fell from his car with blood pouring from his neck and ear from a shrapnel wound screaming: ‘I want my wife’
His homemade bomb blew up as he approached the hospital.Experts have suggested it could have been a poorly made Mother of Satan device or even one put together with fireworks
Aerial view of the aftermath of the explosion at the Liverpool Women’s Hospital and the burnt out taxi
Police said: ‘This is a routine extension of the cordon to allow officers to make an assessment of materials found in a property.It is related to the terror incident’
Police have also yet to find any evidence that failed asylum seeker and pizza chef Emad Al Swealmeen, 32, conspired with or was inspired by a terror group, suggesting he was a ‘lone wolf’ who became radicalised online during lockdown.
<div class="art-ins mol-factbox news halfRHS" data-version="2" id="mol-04fd7a30-4796-11ec-99d1-5dd9b1beb5c7" website cabbie's first words after surviving Poppy Day bombing revealed