A bomber blew up a homemade explosive device in a taxi outside a Liverpool women’s hospital after his asylum claim was rejected, a police investigation has found.
Emad Al Swealmeen, 32, detonated the device while in a taxi outside Liverpool Women’s Hospital just before 11am on November 14, 2021.
CCTV footage showed how the explosion propelled ball bearings forward through the vehicle to the extent the front windscreen was forced out and travelled 16 metres, where it hit a tree, and damage was caused to the windows of the hospital building.
The bomber spent 20 months planning the attack
Taxi driver David Perry managed to escape from the Ford Focus taxi following the blast, which killed Iraqi-born Al Swealmeen.
The bomber spent 20 months planning the attack, which he intended to carry out with makeshift firearms.
But when Al Swealmeen’s ‘technical skills fell short’, he turned to bomb-making, a report into the attack revealed.
Photographs show how investigators found two makeshift rifles, magazine clips and 90 dummy cartridges were found hidden beneath floorboards at a house he had shared with other asylum seekers in Liverpool since 2019.
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Al Swealmeen abandoned his plan to use makeshift firearms in the attack after being unable to get them to work, anti-terror officers revealed.
Using ingredients he bought under a false name, Al Swealmeen later built an explosive device in a flat he rented.
He bought the supplies with cash for the ‘sole purpose’ of building the bomb, the report said.
It was from that property – where he kept a prayer mat and Qur’an – that he was collected by Mr Perry, who worked for a local private hire firm, and asked to be taken to the hospital.
How did Al Swealmeen die?
Al Swealmeen died when his bomb detonated ‘earlier than planned’ in the taxi just before 11am on Remembrance Sunday 2021.
The device was intended ‘to inflict multiple casualties’ and contained ‘several hundred’ ball bearings, police said.
It propelled the taxi’s windscreen 16 metres into the air, while shrapnel peppered the hospital frontage.
A police investigation has found that Al Swealmeen had a grievance against the British state because his asylum claim was rejected.
Detective Superintendent Andy Meeks, of Counter Terrorism Policing North West, told a briefing today that it was believed Al Swealmeen intended to go into the hospital and detonate the device, but it was likely that it exploded earlier than planned.
Mr Meeks said it was ‘extremely fortunate’ Mr Perry escaped and the forecourt was deserted.
He claimed the fact Al Swealmeen sat in the taxi’s near-side rear seat instead of behind Mr Perry, with the bomb detonating directly forwards, may have saved the driver.
The report added the bomber’s motivation was ‘most likely… grievance against the British state for failing to accept his asylum claim compounded by mental ill-health’.
