Bombs outside hospitals in Liverpool

[surreal]

Not seen a thread for this so...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-59285235

Seems the taxi driver may have locked one of the people in his car after he became suspicious - pretty selfless if true

[buzby]

Not seen a thread for this so...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-59285235

Seems the taxi driver may have locked one of the people in his car after he became suspicious - pretty selfless if true

There was one bomb outside one hospital. The word on the street here is the taxi driver thought he looked sus, put the child locks on the rear doors and took him to the Womens instead of where he asked to go (given the timing and the locations of the arrests, I guess he was probably headed for the Cenotaph for the Remembrance Sunday service),

This is the first potential terrorist incident in Liverpool. In the 1997 Grand National incident there was no bomb.

[Tony Tony Tony]

Early reports pretty much echo Buzbys post above. On top of the "own goal" by the bomber there have been three arrests elsewhere in Liverpool.

Seems yer hero taxi driver suffered minor cuts and damage to his eardrum.

Put it all together and you are looking at one lucky guy (that's the taxi driver not his passenger obvs).

[Chedney Honks]

Thank goodness it happened right outside the hospital. Heard they only had a two hour wait for an ambulance! 😂😂😂

In all seriousness, I'm glad the guy is dead, what a cunt, and sounds like the taxi driver pulled a blinder. God knows how he survived.

[Noodle Lizard]

I wasn't sure if I was reading it right, but it sounds like the taxi driver somehow survived being in an exploding car with barely a scratch. I'm very glad for it, of course, but how on earth is that possible?

[Tony Tony Tony]

Seems the driver exited the vehicle just before the actual explosion and his passenger was 'trapped" in the back on account of child locks/ driver managing to lock maybe remotely.

There is video on social media in which a guy near the burning vehicle whose body language seems to say "phew". I would guess if that's the driver his actual language might've been a tad more choice.

[kalowski]

I wasn't sure if I was reading it right, but it sounds like the taxi driver somehow survived being in an exploding car with barely a scratch. I'm very glad for it, of course, but how on earth is that possible?

Have you seen Casino?

[Ian Drunken Smurf]

John Betjeman's writing notebook discovered?

[Shit Good Nose]

Taxi driver arrested for manslaughter by the end of the week.

[Uncle TechTip]

There was one bomb outside one hospital. The word on the street here is the taxi driver thought he looked sus, put the child locks on the rear doors and took him to the Womens instead of where he asked to go (given the timing and the locations of the arrests, I guess he was probably headed for the Cenotaph for the Remembrance Sunday service),

This is the first potential terrorist incident in Liverpool. In the 1997 Grand National incident there was no bomb.

Surely it was still a potential terrorist incident even if there was no bomb.

Does the fact they arrested someone within two hours suggest that MI5 were watching.

[mothman]

Aware[nb]Of the bomber's sympathies and associations, that is, not of an active plot.[/nb], quite likely. Actively watching, probably not.

[Zetetic]

Funding their activities and encouraging them? Best not to ask.

[Sonny_Jim]

Joss Prior on that there Twitter reckons he used to play football with the driver 20 years ago.  Also there's some Facebook donate link being shared around for him:

Hi to all newspapers except the THE SUN .
The family don't want to talk at this time , they need peace , I don't mind you sharing the fund raiser for Rachel and David but that is all x he is home resting with his family now x
I am not doing this for publicity our trade at the moment doesn't need it.   

Nice to see the Sun still getting the good old 'FUCK OFF' from Liverpool.

[Buelligan]

Funding their activities and encouraging them? Best not to ask.

I guffawed. 


But then looked around anxiously and slipped the battery out of my wireless.

[MojoJojo]

Surely it was still a potential terrorist incident even if there was no bomb.

Does the fact they arrested someone within two hours suggest that MI5 were watching.

They probably grabbed who they were watching, whether they were linked to this or not. It seems unlikely they even knew who the bomber was within two hours, since he was all blown up.

I'm a bit confused by the taxi driver - good job locking the bomber in, but why take him to a Women's hospital? Was the taxi driver a massive misogynist? Or did he find himself in the middle of the Adam West Batman movie?

(alright, he was probably just trying to find an open space and the bomber probably worked out they weren't going where they should so he had to get out sharpish. Just a bit weird.)

[Ambient Sheep]

I too wondered why a hospital and not a police station but then I realised what a stroke of genius it was: firstly, if the bomber saw a police station coming up he'd probably have yanked the cord sooner rather than later; secondly, if you're stuck in a car with a suicide bomber who might go off at any moment, where's the best place to be?  Yup, outside the nearest hospital so you have the best chance of surviving.

Why the woman's hospital though?  Maybe was the only one within feasible distance without making the guy suspicious?  Or the driver had forgotten it was women-only in the heat of the moment?  Or indeed, he was just a massive misogynist? ;-)

[Sonny_Jim]

I'm a bit confused by the taxi driver - good job locking the bomber in, but why take him to a Women's hospital?

I reckon the thought process went like this:

I should take him to the police station, but he'll clock that a mile off.  Where can I go that will have security/coppers available?  Hospital?
It's got easy access by car and nurses in case Old Mate in the back gets a bit stabby. 

Or at least that's what I would do if I was Daring Cab Driver Sonny Jim.  Fucking fair play to the guy if what's being said is true, like you don't get a much better result than saving all the lives and making the bad guy dead.

[Icehaven]

According to the news it's less than mile from where the remembrance service was happening so it could just be that it was the first place he could get to once he realised something was up.

[Ambient Sheep]

According to https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-59291095 it seems the guy actually asked to go to the hospital, which apparently, as icehaven said, is less than a mile from the rememberance service.  So he either planned to blow up the hospital misogynistically, or asked to go there to decrease suspicion and was going to walk the last bit.

[Dex Sawash]

Has driver been milkshake ducked yet?

[Zetetic]

The more serious question is: Why didn't this terrorist get the bus?

[Icehaven]

According to https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-59291095 it seems the guy actually asked to go to the hospital, which apparently, as icehaven said, is less than a mile from the rememberance service.  So he either planned to blow up the hospital misogynistically, or asked to go there to decrease suspicion and was going to walk the last bit.

Yep maybe that too. Although given the bomb went off just before 11 he'd have been cutting it a bit fine to get to the remembrance service so maybe the hospital was the target.

[Buelligan]

According to https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-59291095 it seems the guy actually asked to go to the hospital, which apparently, as icehaven said, is less than a mile from the rememberance service.  So he either planned to blow up the hospital misogynistically, or asked to go there to decrease suspicion and was going to walk the last bit.

I thought your ideas upthread were eminently sensible but, if he did ask to go to the hospital - and let's face it, we know nothing about what really happened yet - but if he did, one thing that crossed my mind is that they do have an abortion clinic there and you know how some people are about that.

Maybe it was a fundamentalist Christian.

[druss]

Seems the driver exited the vehicle just before the actual explosion and his passenger was 'trapped" in the back on account of child locks/ driver managing to lock maybe remotely.

There is video on social media in which a guy near the burning vehicle whose body language seems to say "phew". I would guess if that's the driver his actual language might've been a tad more choice.

The bomb went off with the driver still in the car. That dividing glass eh?

[sevendaughters]

this is all quite near where I live. Women's hospital to Anglo cathedral is 5 min on foot through a very quiet bit of the city. Word is the perp was dressed as a pregnant lady. There's a lot of misinformation out there really.

[buzby]

According to https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-59291095 it seems the guy actually asked to go to the hospital, which apparently, as icehaven said, is less than a mile from the rememberance service.  So he either planned to blow up the hospital misogynistically, or asked to go there to decrease suspicion and was going to walk the last bit.

Ah, of course, St. Georges Plateau around the Cenotaph is fenced off at the moment after the company doing the roadworks around Lime St. went bust and left a half-finished mess round there. They moved the service to the Anglican Cathedral instead, which is just down Upper Parliament St. from the Womens.

There were around 2000 people inside the Cathdral for the service, including hundreds of military personnel and a large crowd outside as well. It started at 10.40am, so I presume he must have been targeting them coming out at the end for the march past along Upper Duke St. to Hope St.

Yep maybe that too. Although given the bomb went off just before 11 he'd have been cutting it a bit fine to get to the remembrance service so maybe the hospital was the target.

They generally don't run suicide bombs off timers. they are either self-triggered or triggered by a cell phone call or text message from a spotter once they are in position.

I thought your ideas upthread were eminently sensible but, if he did ask to go to the hospital - and let's face it, we know nothing about what really happened yet - but if he did, one thing that crossed my mind is that they do have an abortion clinic there and you know how some people are about that.

Maybe it was a fundamentalist Christian.

The local demographics of the Kensington area where the three arrests were made suggest otherwise to me.

The bomb went off with the driver still in the car. That dividing glass eh?

It was a Blueline private hire cab, not a Hackney, so there's no dividing glass.

[gilbertharding]

The bomber will have known that you can't get a car very close to a remembrance day service (if that was what he was trying to do), because all the roads are closed so people can parade. At least, that's what happens in most places, I don't know about Liverpool.

[Butchers Blind]

I just hope the cab driver got his fare upfront.

[Beagle 2]

All sounds very four lions. I wonder what first aroused the suspicions of the taxi driver about the bloke dressed as a pregnant lady with a ticking stomach asking to go where all the British soldiers are.

[buzby]

The bomber will have known that you can't get a car very close to a remembrance day service (if that was what he was trying to do), because all the roads are closed so people can parade. At least, that's what happens in most places, I don't know about Liverpool.

The road closures were all for the short march past from the Cathedral along Upper Duke St. to the junction with Hope St. These were all on the other side of the Cathedral from the hospital. However, you can cut through the hospital grounds to get to Upper Duke St. via Falkner Square and Canning St.