UK bomber had been planning attack since April

[Anthea]

Explosion at Liverpool Hospital

Three men have been arrested under the Terrorism Act after a man was killed in a car explosion outside Liverpool Women's Hospital

Counter-terrorism police said the men - aged 29, 26 and 21 - had been held in connection with the incident which happened just before 11:00 GMT.

The passenger of the car - said to be a taxi - was declared dead at the scene and is yet to be formally identified.

The male driver was injured and is in hospital in a stable condition.

Detectives from Counter Terrorism Police North West said the men were detained in the Kensington area of the city.

They added they were continuing to "keep an open mind about the cause of the explosion" and were working with Merseyside Police as the investigation continued "at pace".

Armed officers have carried out raids on a property in Rutland Avenue near Sefton Park, and also in Boaler Street in Kensington.

'Car on fire'

Carl Bessant, who had just had a baby, was inside the hospital with his partner at the time of the blast.

"My partner is really shook up to be honest," he said.

"We were so close and she was feeding the baby when it happened. We heard a loud bang and looked out of the window.

"We saw the car on fire and someone jump out covered in blood, screaming, and there was someone inside the car.

"The hospital shut down, no-one in or out, so they said, but people were using the back entrance."

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Twitter: "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."

Police, fire and bomb disposal crews were at the scene of the blast which remains cordoned off

Home Secretary Priti Patel also tweeted she was "being kept regularly updated on the awful incident".

Speaking outside the hospital earlier, Chief Constable Serena Kennedy of Merseyside Police said: "The emergency services have well-rehearsed plans for dealing with major incidents. Our response is ongoing at the hospital and will be for some time."

She added: "We would urge the public to remain calm but vigilant."

A bomb disposal unit and fire engines attended the scene earlier, which remains cordoned off. Road closures are also in place.

Pictures of a burning car outside the hospital have been widely shared on social media.

Phil Garrigan, chief fire officer of Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service, said the car fire had been "fully developed" when crews arrived shortly after 11:00.

"The operational crews extinguished the fire rapidly but... there was one fatality," he said.

"Another individual had left the vehicle prior to the fire developing to the extent that it did. Our thoughts are with them and the families of those involved."

Liverpool Women's Hospital said visiting access had been restricted "until further notice" and patients had been diverted to other hospitals "where possible".

"We are reviewing our patient activity for the next 24-48 hours and patients should wait to be contacted for updates about any planned appointments or other attendance at the hospital," chief executive Kathryn Thomson said.

Liverpool Women's Hospital receives about 50,000 patients annually and is the largest hospital in its specialism in Europe.

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

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Liverpool attack declared act of terror

A suspected suicide bomber blew himself up with a homemade device outside a maternity hospital in Liverpool, forcing the national terror threat level to be raised for the first time in months amid fears of another potential attack

Counter-terrorism police last night said they “strongly believed” the dead man to be Emad al-Swealmeen, 32, who had travelled in a taxi to Liverpool Women’s hospital from an address he had recently rented a few miles away.

While police said they could not be sure if the hospital was the intended target, or if the device he had constructed had ignited prematurely, NHS officials last night advised all hospitals to review their security arrangements.

In a statement issued on Monday night, DCI Andrew Meeks urged anyone with information about the dead man to come forward immediately.

“Our inquiries are very much ongoing … and now that we have released his name any information that the public may have about al-Swealmeen, no matter how small, may be of great assistance to us.”

The Guardian understands al-Swealmeen had previously changed his name to Enzo Almeni. He was reported by the Daily Mail to have converted to Christianity from Islam in the last few years.

Earlier, police declared the incident a terror attack and the home secretary, Priti Patel, announced the UK’s terror threat level would be raised from substantial to severe, meaning another attack was “highly likely”.


jamil al-Swealmeen had changed his name to Enzo Almeni

After a national emergency meeting, the prime minister, Boris Johnson, urged the public to remain vigilant. Four men who had been arrested in the Kensington area of Liverpool were released without charge by counter-terror police on Monday night.

“What yesterday showed above all is that the British people will never be cowed by terrorism, we will never give in to those who seek to divide us with senseless acts of violence,” Johnson said. “And our freedoms and our way of life will always prevail.”

The suspect is not previously known to MI5, which keeps a list of 3,000 current suspects and just over 20,000 previous ones, or to specialist counter-terrorism police officers.

Assistant chief constable Russ Jackson, from Counter Terrorism Policing North West, said the improvised explosive device was built by a man who had hired a taxi to take him to Liverpool Women’s hospital on Remembrance Sunday.

The hospital is close to Liverpool Cathedral.

“The reason why he then took [the device] to the Women’s hospital is unknown, as is the reason for its sudden explosion,” he said.

“We are, of course, aware that there were remembrance events just a short distance away from the hospital and that the ignition occurred shortly before 11am

“We cannot at this time draw any connection with this but it is a line of inquiry we are pursuing.”

Jackson said the taxi driver, David Perry, picked up a fare in Rutland Avenue, Liverpool, shortly before 11am on Sunday. The man asked to be taken to the hospital, about 10 minutes away.

He said inquiries indicated that the device was brought into the cab by the passenger.

Dramatic footage that emerged on Monday showed the taxi pulling up to the hospital and then the explosion within the vehicle. Perry could be seen stumbling from his black vehicle and fleeing to safety before it went up in a ball of flames. He was treated for serious injuries and released on Monday.

Perry’s wife, Rachel, said he was “lucky to be alive”, adding “how he managed to escape is an utter miracle”, while intelligence experts told the Guardian the hospital had a “lucky escape” because the explosive device “clearly didn’t go off as the terrorist intended”.

The dead man is believed not to be British-born and to have had Syrian and Iraqi heritage. His status in the United Kingdom is under investigation, as is his time at a privately run asylum seeker hostel in Liverpool

The company that runs it declined to comment and referred all inquiries to the police.

From Sunday afternoon onwards, an address was searched in Rutland Avenue in Sefton Park, where police found “significant items”.

In his statement, DCI Meeks said al-Swealmeen was connected to addresses in Rutland Avenue and to another on Sutcliffe Street.

“We believe he lived at the Sutcliffe Street address for some time and had recently rented the Rutland Avenue address,” said Meeks.

“Our focus is the Rutland Avenue address where we have continued to recover significant items.”

Three men aged 21, 26 and 29 were arrested on Sunday under the Terrorism Act, while a fourth man aged 20 was arrested on Monday.

The first three arrests took place in Sutcliffe Street, where witnesses reported seeing armed officers swoop on a terrace house on Sunday afternoon. The fourth arrest took place in the Kensington area of the city on Monday, police said.

Keith Ford, 47, a production operative who lives in Sutcliffe Street with his partner and 13-year-old daughter, witnessed the dramatic arrests. “I’d say about an hour and a half later, a man came out of the property that they were pointing the guns at,” he said.

“He came to the front door, police shouted at him, saying ‘hands up in the air’, then he walked to the pub on the end of the corner.”

Ford described the man as having dark hair, dark trousers and a blue T-shirt. He continued: “A couple of hours later, another man came to the door, the police were shouting at him, saying: ‘Hands up in the air, hands up in the air.’”

He understood that the occupants of the property changed around two months ago and he had not seen anyone since they moved in.

Johnson chaired a Cobra meeting on the attack on Monday afternoon; Cobra is shorthand for the Civil Contingencies Committee, which is convened to handle matters of national emergency or major disruption.

The decision taken on Monday by the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre represents an upgrade of one notch from the previous threat level of substantial.

The threat level had been at the lower level since 8 February after a “significant reduction” in the momentum of attacks in Europe, including those seen in Austria and France between September and November 2020.

Announcing the change, Patel said the terror threat level had been raised because there had been two attacks in the space of a month.

Priti Patel says terrorism threat level raised to severe after Liverpool blast

The home secretary said: “The Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre, Jtac, are now increasing the United Kingdom’s threat level from substantial to severe.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/202 ... de-bombing

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Bomber plan attack since April

Liverpool bomber Emad Al Swealmeen began making purchases for his attack in April, counter-terror police have said

Assistant Chief Constable Russ Jackson said the 32-year-old asylum seeker, who was born in Iraq, rented a property in the city seven months ago.

Al Swealmeen had suffered from periods of mental illness which will "form part of the investigation", he added.

A post-mortem found he died from injuries caused by the explosion.

Christian convert Al Swealmeen was a passenger in a taxi when his homemade device exploded outside Liverpool Women's Hospital shortly before 11:00 GMT on Remembrance Sunday.

The driver David Perry escaped seconds before his car was engulfed in flames and has since been discharged from hospital.

Home Secretary Priti Patel said the UK terror threat level had been raised from "substantial" to "severe", meaning an attack is "highly likely", because the explosion in Liverpool was the second incident in a month.

Mr Jackson, head of Counter Terrorism Policing North West, said: "A complex picture is emerging over the purchases of the component parts of the device, we know that Al Swealmeen rented the property from April this year and we believe relevant purchases have been made at least since that time.

"We have now traced a next of kin for Al Swealmeen who has informed us that he was born in Iraq."

He said police were "not finding any link to others in the Merseyside area of concern but this remains a fast moving investigation and as more becomes known we cannot rule out action against others".

The taxi has been removed from outside the hospital but searches by specialist officers will continue to take place, Mr Jackson said.

Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust, which provides mental health services, said Al Swealmeen had received treatment in the past but was not under their care at the time of the explosion.

Police said he had lived at a property in Sutcliffe Street, in the Kensington area of Liverpool, for some time and began renting a property in Rutland Avenue, near Sefton Park, in April.

Mr Jackson said "significant items" had been recovered from the Rutland Avenue address, where searches have been taking place since Sunday.

"We continue to appeal for people who knew him, especially those who associated with him this year as we try and piece together the events leading up to this incident and the reasons for it," he added.

On Monday evening, police released without charge four men who had been arrested under terrorism laws in connection with the attack.

The BBC has confirmed Al Swealmeen made a legal attempt to gain permission to stay in the UK, but it was rejected without being considered in court.

Malcolm Hitchcott, a Christian activist in Liverpool, said he and his wife offered Al Swealmeen a place to stay for eight months in 2017 after he told them he had lost his case and was destitute.

"He was absolutely genuine, as far as I could tell. I was in no doubt by the time that he left us at the end of that eight months that he was a Christian," Mr Hitchcott told BBC Radio Merseyside.

Al Swealmeen was baptised at Liverpool Cathedral in 2015 and confirmed in 2017 but the Diocese of Liverpool's communications director, Stuart Haynes, said they lost contact with him in 2018.

The Right Reverend Cyril Ashton, the bishop who confirmed Al Swealmeen, said he was "shocked and saddened" by the bombing.

"His confirmation was one of hundreds I have conducted as a bishop so I have no specific recollection of the individual," he said.

The Church of England has said it is not aware of any link between conversion and asylum system abuse after after newspaper reports suggested changing religion could be a way to "game the asylum system".

In a statement, the Church said "it is not the role of clergy" to establish whether an asylum claim was legitimate.

Liverpool Cathedral said it had "developed robust processes for discerning whether someone might be expressing a genuine commitment to faith".

In the UK, dubious immigration advice services tell would be and especially failed asylum seekers, to fake mental illness making it extremely difficult to deport them as they pretend to be unaware of what is happening

Also, they are to pretend convertion to Christianity or pretend to be homosexual, both of which may put people at risk if returned to Islamic countries

This man was clean shaven - do not be fooled because ISIS themselves told supporters in Europe they should shave their beards off to enable them to better blend in with host communities

The Reverend Mike Hindley said Al Swealmeen was also involved in the Emmanuel Church in the Fazakerley area of Liverpool from 2017 to 2019, when they lost touch with him.

He said Al Swealmeen, who parishioners knew as Enzo, "never made a secret" of the fact he had mental health problems but did not go into great detail about them with him.

A spokesman for the City of Liverpool College said Al Swealmeen was an adult cake decorating student at the college during the 2018-2019 academic year.

Joy Gambardella, a lay reader at Emmanuel Church, said he loved baking cakes and making pizza.

"He used to make cakes for the church and sell them," she said.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-59317136

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Police seal off area materials found

This afternoon police in Merseyside sealed off streets in Kensington so "an assessment of materials" found at a property in connection with Sunday's attack could be carried out

Police have sealed off Boaler Street in Kensington, Liverpool, today

Counter-terrorism police have closed off roads in Liverpool after "materials" were found at a home as they investigate Sunday's Remembrance Day attack.

A bomb disposal vehicle has been seen at the scene this afternoon as officers continue to piece together what happened prior to the explosion.

Officers this afternoon sealed off Boaler Street, at the junction of Sutcliffe Street, in Kensington.

The area was previously sealed off by police after counter-terror police arrested four suspects there in connection with the Liverpool Women's Hospital terror attack.

All were subsequently released without charge.

A police statement to the Liverpool Echo said: "This is a routine extension of the cordon to allow officers to make an assessment of materials found in a property on Boaler Street.

"It is related to the terror incident."

Greater Manchester Police posted on Twitter: "Officers in Merseyside have extended a cordon on Sutcliffe Street in the Kensington area to allow officers to make an assessment of materials found in a property that we've been searching. This is only as a precaution and we will provide updates when we have them."
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Police officers have been on the scene at Sutcliffe Street in Kensington where four men aged 20, 21, 26 and 29 were arrested on Sunday and Monday but released earlier this week.

But today just after 1pm forensic investigators were seen rushing around in and out of the property before uniform officers hurriedly extended the police tape to cordon off Sutcliffe Street and part of Boaler Street.

Residents inside the cordon were told to stay inside and not let anyone in while two businesses including a pub and tile warehouse were told to shut completely and evacuate.

Keith Ford, 47, a production operative, who lives two doors down from where the arrests were made, said: “Its terrifying knowing how close to home it is.

“My 13 year old daughter is in a terrible state.

“She can’t sleep.

“I only left at 12.20pm and when I came back they won’t let us back in.”

We'll be bringing you the very latest updates, pictures and video on this breaking news story.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/b ... aking-news

[Anthea]

Homemade device used shrapnel

The bomb which exploded near Liverpool Women's Hospital contained homemade explosives and ball bearings and could have caused "significant injury or death", police have revealed

Emad Al Swealmeen's device exploded shortly before 11:00 GMT on Remembrance Sunday in a taxi outside the hospital.

Assistant Chief Constable Russ Jackson said a "completely unintentional" detonation had not been ruled out.

He added that police had found no links to the Manchester Arena attack in 2017.

Christian convert Al Swealmeen, 32, was a passenger in the taxi when his device exploded.

Driver David Perry escaped seconds before the vehicle was engulfed in flames.

A post-mortem examination found Al Swealmeen died from injuries caused by the explosion and subsequent fire.

Mr Jackson, head of Counter Terrorism Police North West, said it was still unknown why the bomb exploded when it did, "but we are not discounting it being completely unintentional".

"It is a possibility that the movement of the vehicle, or its stopping, caused the ignition," he explained.

He said the bomb had been made "using homemade explosive and had ball bearings attached to it which would have acted as shrapnel".

"Had it detonated in different circumstances we believe it would have caused significant injury or death," added Mr Jackson.

Police said no links had been found between Al Swealmeen and the Manchester Arena bombers

He said detectives were trying to understand "the way the purchases for the ingredients to make the device were made".

That work was complicated "because purchases have spanned many months and Al Swealmeen has used many aliases", Mr Jackson said.

Police previously said Al Swealmeen had been renting a property in Rutland Avenue, near Sefton Park in Liverpool, since April and was making "relevant purchases" for his bomb from at least that time.

Mr Jackson said "significant progress" was being made in the investigation, which includes ongoing searches at the Rutland Avenue address and at another property on Sutcliffe Street in Kensington.

He said officers had "found no connection between this incident and the terrible events of Manchester in May 2017" and that the device "was also different to the one used in the Manchester Arena attack".

He also said police had spoken with the bomber's brother and had gained "an insight into his early years and an understanding of Al Swealmeen's life and his recent state of mind".

Mr Jackson added that detectives were also "grateful" to the "members of the public who knew him and have contacted us".

Al Swealmeen is not believed to have been known to MI5, according to BBC security correspondent Gordon Corera.

One of the members of his tribe in Jordan told the BBC that the bomber was Jordanian, but born in Iraq, and had a history of mental illness. His family settled in the United Arab Emirates in 1996.

Al Swealmeen left for Syria 12 years ago, then headed to Turkey.

He reportedly arrived in the UK in 2014 and had an application for asylum, in which he claimed to be Syrian, rejected the following year, but had made a fresh appeal in January this year.

His submissions were under review at the time of his death.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-m ... e-59346012