New footage has emerged of a Liverpool cabbie holding his head in his hands seconds after nearly being killed in a terror attack.
The social media clip shows a dazed David Perry staggering from his wrecked taxi which had just been blown up by suspected suicide bomber Emad Jamil Al Swealmeen.
David, 45, was discharged from hospital on Sunday night after suffering minor shrapnel injuries in the blast as his wife said it was an ‘utter miracle’ he survived.
It’s thought his passenger detonated a ball-bearing device as the taxi pulled up outside the Liverpool Women’s Hospital shortly before 11am on Remembrance Sunday.
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The film shows the aftermath of the blast with the taxi fully aflame and David inshock, being attended to by hospital staff.
He’d picked up the passenger in the Rutland Avenue area of Liverpool, roughly a 10-minute drive from the hospital.
As he approached the entrance the bomb detonated. Police believe it was an ‘improvised explosive device’ and were working under the assumption that it was built in the taxi.
Police yesterday named the man who died as Al Swealmeen, 32, who was understood to be of Middle Eastern origin and reportedly settled in Britain several years ago.
According to reports, he converted to Christianity while living in Britain and had not previously been known to the security services.
A couple who looked after him in their home after he came to the UK as an asylum seeker have spoken of their shock at what happened.
It’s thought the suspect had not intended to detonate the bomb in the taxi and David’s life may have been saved by his partition screen which separated him from passengers.
Reports also said he locked the bomber in the vehicle to stop him from harming patients inside the hospital.
David’s wife, Rachel Perry, said on Facebook yesterday that he was ‘doing ok but is extremely sore’.
She wrote: ‘I would just like to thank each and every one of you who has messaged asking how David is. He is doing ok but is extremely sore and trying to process what’s happened.
‘There are a lot of rumours flying round about him being a hero and locking the passenger inside the car. But the truth of the matter is, he is without doubt, lucky to be alive. The explosion happened whilst he was in the car and how he managed to escape is an utter miracle. He certainly had some guardian angels looking over him’
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has praised the taxi driver for acting with ‘incredible presence of mind and bravery’, while mayor of Liverpool Joanne Anderson lauded the driver for his ‘heroic efforts’.
It comes as a controlled explosion was carried out at an address in Liverpool last night as part of the investigation into the bombing.
Residents of the Sefton Park area were told not to be concerned by the blast.
The UK’s terror threat level was raised to ‘severe’ from ‘substantial’ after the attack – the second terror incident in a month after MP Sir David Amess was stabbed to death.
Home Office minister Damian Hinds said this morning that counterterrorism police were discovering ‘more by the hour’ about the Liverpool attack but that it could be weeks before the full picture of what happened had formed.
Mr Hinds told Sky News it was right to be concerned about so-called ‘lone wolf’ figures who had been radicalised during the pandemic.
He said: ‘We use the term lone wolf a lot, sometimes it’s a bit… it can be a little misleading because it gives a certain picture of an individual, but it certainly is true that we’ve seen a move over time, a shift from these what we call directed attacks, part of a bigger organisation where people are following instructions, sometimes quite complex in their organisation, and move from that to more self-directed, some self-radicalised individuals or small groups, rarely totally, totally alone.’
MORE : Suspect killed in Liverpool hospital terror attack named as Emad Al Swealmeen
MORE : UK’s terror threat level raised to ‘severe’ meaning attack ‘highly likely’
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