A taxi driver is being hailed a hero after a vehicle exploded outside a hospital in the northern English city of Liverpool on Sunday, Nov. 14.
The taxi driver, who has been named locally as David Perry, is said to have thwarted a tragedy on Remembrance Day by locking a suspect inside his cab before a bomb the man was holding exploded outside a hospital in Liverpool.
Perry allegedly pulled up outside Liverpool Women’s Hospital on Sunday morning and after “noticing the device” jumped out of the cab and locked the man inside.
The car exploded just seconds before the nation was to fall into silence. As a result, Perry suffered from non-life-threatening injuries and is currently being treated at a local hospital.
The suicide bomber died in the explosion.
Perry stopped the car just outside the maternity ward of a local hospital, less than a mile from the reported intended target of a Remembrance Day service at Liverpool’s Anglican Cathedral.
Present at the service the suicide bomber was targeting were military personnel, veterans, and civic dignitaries.
Police cordons remained in place in areas of Liverpool in the early hours of Monday, Nov. 15, after the car explosion at the hospital, which killed one person and injured another.
Perry’s action also led armed police to arrest three others in another part of the city, as part of a probe into the incident.
Hours after the blast, police raided a house and arrested the men in their 20s. Police are also still present outside the hospital, and asking people not to show up unless they have confirmed appointments.
The identity of the bomber has not yet been revealed, and the city is still on high alert after the incident.
In his update, Prime Minister Boris Johnson didn’t mention Perry by name, instead saying, “My thoughts are with all those affected by the awful incident in Liverpool today. I want to thank the emergency services for their quick response and professionalism, and the police for their ongoing work on the investigation.”
It’s believed Perry is from Kirkdale, a district of Liverpool.
A friend of Perry’s told Daily Mail that the taxi driver was just going about his day on Sunday when one passenger changed his life forever.
The friend said: “The passenger asked David to go to the cathedral so we believe that was the intended target. But they got stuck in heavy traffic so the passenger asked to go to the hospital instead.”
Just outside the hospital, it is reported Perry noticed the passenger had explosives and was behaving suspiciously throughout the trip, so he quickly locked him in the car and escaped.
The resulting explosion also appeared to injure Perry, with another person noting on Facebook, “He’s in a bad, bad way. He’s a fellow driver on delta. He’s had his ear sewn back on, got burns and shrapnel wounds, and other pretty serious injuries.”
Right now, there’s still a lot of confusion regarding the event, with police still investigating.
Merseyside Police chief constable Serena Kennedy said, “So far we understand that the car involved was a taxi which pulled up at the hospital shortly before the explosion occurred. Work is still going on to establish what has happened and could take some time before we are in a position to confirm anything.”