Bombs outside hospitals in Liverpool

[Ambient Sheep]

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...

Thanks!  Well I assume the minicab company would have records of the requested pickup and dropoff points; presumably that's how the police were able to swoop on the street concerned so quickly.

...one thing that crossed my mind is that they do have an abortion clinic there and you know how some people are about that.

Yes, it had crossed mine too.

Maybe it was a fundamentalist Christian.

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

I don't think Christians have a monopoly on anti-abortion fundamentalists. :-/


But yeah, from the more recent posts in this thread, it seems the Remembrance was probably the actual target:

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.

Sounds eminently plausible.  Thanks for the local knowledge.

All sounds very four lions.

Does, doesn't it?  I rather like mini-Babybels myself.

[Blinder Data]

Footage of explosion: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-59289278

Miraculous that the driver got out of that in one piece. Quick thinking by him too. Worra ledge.

[Blumf]

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.

"Ah, damn it! Don't spose you've got any spare detonator cord on ya, mate?"

[mothman]

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.

When I heard it was outside a hospital I wondered if the antivaxxers were upping their game. But that still feels unlikely. And, it NOT being one of the "usual suspects" might explain the ineptitude of the plot...

[touchingcloth]

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

Let the guy splurge a tenner on a taxi, won't you? You can't take it with you.

[Elderly Sumo Prophecy]

Editors contemplate rewrite.

[Buelligan]

I don't think Christians have a monopoly on anti-abortion fundamentalists. :-/

No.  I was joking.  It just feels like there's always a rush to find a certain kind of fundamentalist whenever a thing like this happens.  It's either them or a mentally-ill lone wolf.  Just thought it would make a nice change.

[Icehaven]

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.

Yes I know, but whatever the target was I doubt he intended to be in a taxi when it detonated, so either it went off by mistake or he realised he was locked in the taxi and detonated it anyway. Apparently there's not much blast damage to the car so the police reckon it either wasn't a very big bomb or it malfunctioned.

[shiftwork2]

I was born in a Liverpool hospital and missed this bomb by just 49 years.  Counting my blessings this lunchtime.

Anybody else had a sobering brush with death?

[JamesTC]

I was born in a Liverpool hospital and missed this bomb by just 49 years.  Counting my blessings this lunchtime.

Anybody else had a sobering brush with death?

I was 11 months old and at The Strand with my mum and dad when James Bulger was kidnapped.

[Icehaven]

Footage of explosion: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-59289278

Miraculous that the driver got out of that in one piece. Quick thinking by him too. Worra ledge.

Blimey it's a good few seconds after the explosion that the driver gets out isn't it? And the car's still just about moving when it goes off. He must have thought he was a goner.

[Neomod]

Footage of explosion: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-59289278

Miraculous that the driver got out of that in one piece. Quick thinking by him too. Worra ledge.

I could make a better bomb than that with some tin foil and Swan Vesta's.

[buzby]

No.  I was joking.  It just feels like there's always a rush to find a certain kind of fundamentalist whenever a thing like this happens.  It's either them or a mentally-ill lone wolf.  Just thought it would make a nice change.

He was "of Middle Eastern background and not on any MI5 watchlist", apparently.

I could make a better bomb than that with some tin foil and Swan Vesta's.

The clear video of the explosion is leading to speculation that it was firework/black powder-based, based on the amount of white smoke and relatively weak blast wave when it went off.

[shiftwork2]

I was 11 months old and at The Strand with my mum and dad when James Bulger was kidnapped.

Cheers as I got dragged around the Strand as a toddler AS WELL.  This was 1974/5 so I missed being Venablesed by a mere 18 years.

CHALK IT UP

[Kelvin]

Footage of explosion: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-59289278

Miraculous that the driver got out of that in one piece. Quick thinking by him too. Worra ledge.

Shout out to the guy in the hi-viz jacket (a paramedic?) who barely hesitates before running straight towards a car that has just exploded.

Does he initially try to grab the driver, thinking he might have a bomb himself?

True bravery from both of them, anyway.

[mothman]

You can see hi-viz guy either hugging, supporting or restraining the driver.

Love the guy obviously trying to move his car from where it's parked directly in front of the doors. Bet that's a disabled space he wasn't even meant to be using.

[Icehaven]

Shout out to the guy in the hi-viz jacket (a paramedic?) who barely hesitates before running straight towards a car that has just exploded.

Does he initially try to grab the driver, thinking he might have a bomb himself?

True bravery from both of them, anyway.

He starts running when you see the driver getting out so yep presumably either that or he was running to help him. Possibly the latter as I don't know if your first immediate thought would be that it was necessarily a bomb/terrorist incident, although he does see the explosion so maybe.

[Elderly Sumo Prophecy]

Maybe he was running up to twat the driver, like that guy at Glasgow airport.

[Icehaven]

Yep it does look like he's chasing him at first so quite possibly. Be unfortunate if the driver's "minor injuries" turn out to be from getting battered.

[Huxleys Babkins]

Loving the bloke with the fire extinguisher trying to put that massive blaze out. Lost cause, mate, get clear.

[druss]

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

Must have been a pretty shit bomb then.

Editors contemplate rewrite.

Good stuff.

[Cold Meat Platter]

I don't see why they couldn't have just blown themselves up at home rather than causing all this fuss.

[El Unicornio, mang]

Anybody else had a sobering brush with death?

Was being driven through an intersection in the US by my girlfriend at the time one night about 10 years ago and a car went racing through a red light (from our right) just in front of us. Almost certainly would have both been brown bread if we'd been there 2 seconds earlier.

[JesusAndYourBush]

Must have been a pretty shit bomb then.
Good stuff.

The chair and headrest must have protected the driver somewhat?

[Neomod]

I was born in a Liverpool hospital and missed this bomb by just 49 years.  Counting my blessings this lunchtime.

Anybody else had a sobering brush with death?

Before the age of 7 I'd nearly drowned twice. Worst was in Spain when I jumped into the pool aged 4 with a rubber ring on. Ring stayed on the surface. I went under.

In the end I learnt to swim underwater before I could swim on it.

[sevendaughters]

just been for an afternoon trot to Lark Lane then back across Sefton Park. over at the car park near where Ullet Rd (coming from Smithdown) becomes both Croxteth Park Rd and Ullet Rd were about 12-15 rozzers. This is quite near Rutland Rd where one of the arrested men was caught (also where the taxi was dispatched from). Loads of birds are being riled up in the foreground as I am walking from the path between the obelisk and the cafe so I walk across the grass to try and get a snap of these crazed birds and the rozzers.

Anyway as I am walking across the police start walking in a line across the park in the direction I just came from. Not a tight line like you see when they're combing for traces of the dead, but tight enough that they were completely unbroken when they walked straight through a kid's football match that was happening (they ordered them to break it off and move on). And then when I got to the car park itself I overheard a lady rozzer telling any dog walkers not to use the grass in the vast centre of the park where the pigs had walked. Not sure what they're doing, but they're doing something.

The photo turned out shite.

[druss]

Anybody else had a sobering brush with death?

Before the bombing you used to be able to walk through the arena and train station in Manchester as a short cut. I walked through there not long before that nobhead blew himself up.

[pancreas]

I nearly blew up a hospital once. Mistook the ENT department for the TNT department.

fuckitpost

[mothman]

Brushes with death? At least three. Even a full-on near-death experience the last time.

[mjwilson]

I was born in a Liverpool hospital and missed this bomb by just 49 years.  Counting my blessings this lunchtime.

Anybody else had a sobering brush with death?

I considered going into Manchester city centre on the day of the bomb, but in the end I didn't get round to it.