Headlines: Bomber had been a student at The City of Liverpool College and sold cakes for church

Liverpool bomber Emad Al Swealmeen was a cake decorating student at the City of Liverpool College and used to them sell for the church.

The Christian convert, 32, who died in the blast in a taxi outside Liverpool Women’s Hospital shortly before 11:00 on Remembrance Sunday, had enrolled as an adult student at college during the 2018-2019 academic year.

Joy Gambardella, lay reader at Emmanuel Church in Fazakerley, where Al Swealmeen attended between 2017 and 2019, said: “He used to make cakes for the church and sell them.”

She said he had been a “lovely, lovely man” who was a “committed Christian”.

“He used to love baking and he did a baking course, he also did pizza making,” she added.

A statement has been released from The City of Liverpool College where the Liverpool bomber was enrolled on the course for cake decorating.

They said: “Like many, we are deeply saddened by the events at Liverpool Women’s Hospital this weekend. The wellbeing of our students and staff remains The City of Liverpool College’s number one priority.”

Following the terrorist incident, Home Secretary Priti Patel announced that the threat level to the UK from terrorism has been raised to ‘severe’, meaning an attack is highly likely. The UK was last at ‘severe’ in November 2020 before being lowered to ‘substantial’ in February this year.

Bomber could have been planning attack for months

Al Swealmeen began making purchases for his attack since at least April, according to counter-terror police.

Assistant Chief Constable Russ Jackson, Head of Counter Terrorism Policing North West, said: "A complex picture is emerging over the purchases of the parts of the device.

"At this time, we are 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 in which the device exploded has now been removed, and today line searches by specialist officers will take place at the hospital, which could go into tomorrow (Thursday).

"Our enquiries have found that Al Swealmeen has had episodes of mental illness, this will form part of the investigation and will take some time to fully understand."

Anyone who has any information should call on 0161 856 1027 quoting Liverpool Women's Hospital incident.