A hero taxi driver nearly paid the ultimate price on Sunday – British Remembrance Day — as he prevented a suicide bomber from blowing up a women’s hospital in the British city of Liverpool.
The driver, 45-year-old husband and father of two David Perry locked his passenger inside the taxi after noticing he had a bomb, and then jumped out of the cab.
The bomber — identified late Monday to reporters as 32-year old Emad Al Swealmeen — blew himself up inside the cab, turning the vehicle into a fireball just seconds before the country’s 11 am ‘minute of silence’ was due to take place.
Today is the day we remember our fallen heroes.
Today also introduced us to a NEW hero.
This is David Perry, a brave cab driver, who single-handedly stopped a major terrorist attack in Liverpool. pic.twitter.com/FtMcbozM97
— Mahyar Tousi (@MahyarTousi)
“Our enquiries are very much ongoing but at this stage we strongly believe that the deceased is 32 year old Emad Al Swealmeen,” Greater Manchester Police Detective Chief Inspector Andrew Meeks said in a statement. “Al Swealmeen is connected to both the Rutland Avenue and Sutcliffe Street addresses where searches are still ongoing.”
The terrorist had asked to go to the city’s Service of Remembrance at Liverpool’s Anglican Cathedral, where some 1,200 people were gathered, less than a mile away, but traffic closures led him to ask Perry to park at the hospital instead.
Swealmeen was declared dead at the scene. Perry was treated at the hospital for cuts, bruises and damage to an ear drum, and released.
Bomb squad and military personnel remained at the hospital.
British authorities said three arrests of suspects ages 21, 26 and 29, were made in the Kensington section of the city under the Terrorism Act in the wake of raids carried out across the city.
However, the suspects were not identified.
Russ Jackson, head of Counter Terror North West Unit confirmed it as a “terrorist incident.” Jackson told reporters that an improvised explosive device was “manufactured and our assumption so far is that it was built by the passenger in the taxi.”
Britain’s MI5 intelligence personnel are helping police, the Daily Mail reported.
This is Liverpool taxi driver David Perry who locked a Remembrance Sunday terrorist in his cab seconds before the bomber detonated an explosive device right outside a maternity hospital. David’s actions almost certainly saved many lives. He is an absolute hero. pic.twitter.com/qjHzGMxIUT
— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan)
Following the incident the UK terror threat level was raised to severe from substantial, meaning an attack is “highly likely,” according to the BBC.
A Facebook fundraiser to help Perry – whose cab was destroyed – and his family has so far brought in more than 9,000 British pounds.