Four people were “very, very ill” and in the hospital on Tuesday, the mayor of Liverpool said, a day after a car drove into an enormous crowd of elated soccer fans in the city in northwest England.
Almost 50 people were injured in the incident on Monday evening, which the British police are not treating as terrorism. The police moved quickly to announce that the driver of the car was a 53-year-old white man from Britain, in an apparent move to stop the spread of misinformation.
The collision ripped through what should have been a jubilant day for the city. Hundreds of thousands of people had gathered on Monday, a public holiday, to celebrate Liverpool F.C.’s victory in the Premier League, which is the top tier of British soccer.
“Scenes of joy turned to utter horror and devastation,” Prime Minister Keir Starmer told broadcast journalists on Tuesday, adding, “The whole country stands with Liverpool.”
The Merseyside Police said they were contacted at about 6 p.m. on Monday local time after reports that a car had hit the crowd.