New video shows terrifying moment bomb explodes outside Liverpool Women’s Hospital

Police have released CCTV footage of the terrifying moment a homemade bomb detonated outside a Liverpool maternity hospital.

On November 14, 2021 Emad Al Swealmeen pulled up as a passenger in a Delta taxi outside the reception of Liverpool Women’s Hospital and set off a bomb at 10.59am.

Taxi driver, David Perry, escaped from the vehicle seconds before the homemade explosive device went off in the back of the car and Al Swealmeen died in the explosion. Shattering the windows the vehicle, the homemade bomb also caused injury to Mr Perry’s ear, but he was treated and later discharged from hospital.

The newly released CCTV footage shows how the explosion propelled ball bearings forward through the vehicle and travelled 16 metres, hitting a tree and damaging the windows of the hospital building. 

It is believed Al Swealmeen intended to go into the hospital and detonate the device, however Detective Superintendent Andy Meeks said the bomb was “inherently unstable” and it is highly likely that it exploded earlier than planned.

Photographs also show two makeshift rifles, magazine clips and 90 dummy cartridges that were found hidden beneath floorboards at a house Al Swealmeen had shared with other asylum seekers since 2019. 

Investigators say he built an IED using components purchased legally over a number of months and took “significant steps” to conceal this activity from the authorities, going as far as renting a flat on Rutland Avenue to build the device.

DS Meeks said: “We are confident that Al Swealmeen acted alone and that this was a planned attack by a man who was prepared to do more harm than was thankfully inflicted.

“We still can’t say with absolute certainty what his intended target was, however, there is no information to suggest that Al Swealmeen planned to detonate his device anywhere other than the Liverpool Women’s Hospital.

“It is believed the motive was likely driven by anger towards the British state for repeated rejections of his asylum claim and exacerbated by his own mental health struggles.”