POLICE faced serious questions today about how a car managed to access a packed road during a Liverpool FC parade before it ploughed into a crowd of people. 

Four children were among the 47 people injured in the incident on Monday evening.

Liverpool City Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram told the BBC there were “still four people who are very, very ill in hospital.”

Speaking to reporters at the scene today, he said the “big question” at the forefront of everybody’s minds was how the car ended up on that street.

“Water Street was not a route where vehicles were supposed to be using it, it was blocked off,” Mr Rotherham said.

He said the questions about how the car ended up on the road are “legitimate,” but police must be given the time to conclude their investigations.

At a press conference on Monday, Merseyside Police said that they had arrested a 53-year-old white British man from the Liverpool area.

It is understood that detectives are investigating whether the driver attempted to follow an ambulance that was moving through the crowd.

Police released the race and ethnicity of the suspect at an “unprecedented” speed, former Metropolitan Police chief superintendent Dal Babu told the BBC.

The force was criticised last year for not releasing more information in the wake of the Southport murders last summer, after false rumours spread online that the killer was Muslim and an asylum-seeker, sparking racist riots across the country. 

Speaking to the BBC today, Labour MP Kim Johnson accused the far right “of again trying to stoke up hate and division by calling this a suspected terror attack.”

Such claims surfaced on X, including from an account belonging to EDL founder Tommy Robinson.

Stand up to Racism co-convener Sabby Dhalu said: “In light of rumours circulating online by the far right, and events last summer where false information about the Southport attack led to racist riots, we support the decision to announce details of the perpetrator. We also need leadership from the police and government on challenging racism linking ethnicity and religion to crime.”

A planned strike by workers at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital was called off today following the crash.

Some 50 members of Unite who work in the microbiology department were set to walk out in a dispute over staffing. 

Unite regional officer Derek Jones said: “Following yesterday’s tragic events in Liverpool, members took the immediate decision to suspend action so they could provide full support to the major incident which has been declared by the hospital trust.”