How Liverpool’s Premier League title parade turned into chaos
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Tony Evans here with Walk On, your Liverpool podcast from The Athletic. I'm here with James Pearce and Simon Hughes, and it's going to be a very sombre podcast. We'll reflect on what happened at Liverpool's title parade, a day that contained so much joy and celebration, but ended in shock and sadness. Chaps, it was all seemed to be going so well, wasn't it? James, what was a good day turned ugly very quickly. Yeah, it seems that.

even now quite difficult to just get my head around it because as you said Tony it was a day full of so much joy I was down on the strand for pretty much for midday onwards actually because I did something for LFC TV at lunchtime and you know they've got this incredible balcony that looks out over

over the Liver building. And, you know, the crowds were immense even then. And, you know, we were talking about those of us that were there, you know, the bus isn't even going to be here for five hours. You know, this is absolutely crazy, you know, the mother of all parties. And then later on in the afternoon, a friend of mine who's got a

balcony, like an apartment with a balcony, but a little bit further down the Strand, we went, went, went to his, his place and yeah, probably, I don't know, 300 meters away from, from Water Street, just along Drury Lane. And yeah, it was, everyone I was with was saying, you know, this is up there with, you know, the greatest day of their lives and been able to share it as well with my dad and my son was so special. And then it was only probably not long after six o'clock where you just thinking, well,

But something wasn't right because the sound of sirens was growing louder and louder. And then I saw an air ambulance come into view and then started getting a few messages that there'd been this incident just down the road. And then when I went down to street level...

It was just hard to believe how quickly that party mood had changed. There were people weeping, people running in absolute terror and panic had set in. Yes, what are your reflections on it? Well, I went to the parade earlier in the day at the starting point in Allerton, I guess Shebaib in Liverpool.

A lot of locals around who are from the area. I suppose, obviously, people who were visiting the city were always going to descend on the city centre. It's a bit easier for them. I left at about three o'clock and I must say, I actually, for one moment, thought I might be able to drive through Liverpool here and get through. Not going along the Strand, but some of the back streets that I knew. And getting anywhere close to Liverpool was really hard. And I ended up turning back and going in the opposite direction to get home. It took me nearly...

an hour and a half to do a route that would ordinarily take 35 minutes. So it shows you just how much traffic and how many people were there. So yeah, I mean, it's one of the unanswered questions at the moment, how, why the car was in the city at that time and why, I guess the driver, uh,

to follow the ambulance through a blocked off area. That's just been revealed in the latest press conference, which happened just after three o'clock. So there is an update. I think it's important to explain that update, that the driver was arrested, suspected of potential murder, dangerous driving and driving while under the influence of drugs. Obviously, we don't know what those drugs were.

So by the time I got home, I was just trying to relax, get the kids to bed. And for some reason I thought, I'll just check online. I don't normally do this, but I did. I just saw this one person making a comment about a scene down by Water Street and my heart just sank. It was a horrible, horrible feeling. I just had this feeling that this was not going to end happily ever.

We have had, in the latest update, a bit better news than last night. That's true. 65 people were injured, 50 were taken to hospital, 11 remain and are stable, which is much better than the original indications, James, because from speaking to people, from seeing the footage, it looked very bad. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I think...

If there is no loss of life from this incident, then it's miraculous, really. I think anyone who's seen any of the sickening footage, it's the feeling it has to be that it could have been so much worse. And obviously all of our thoughts and prayers are with those 11, especially that are still in hospital. And thankfully, I think the update was that they're

that they're stable, which is good, but it's, yeah, I mean, just for context, for those who don't know the geography of it, I mean, Water Street, where this happened, you know, leads up onto Dale Street, and,

which is one of the main city centre streets that goes all the way up to Lime Street. So, of course, because it was around six o'clock, it was only, what, probably 15 minutes before that Arne Slott and his triumphant squad had passed by there on the bus. That was effectively the end of the parade. And so you had thousands upon thousands making their way up there. It was so, so busy.

Because people were starting to disperse and trying to find a way to get back home. So it does feel, you know, pretty miraculous that we're not talking about something that was even more serious.

Joining us now to reflect on the incident from an eyewitness perspective is BBC journalist Dan Ogenshorten, who was at the parade in a personal capacity. Dan, thanks for joining us. How are you? I'm all right. Thanks, Tony. The day's been a bit of a whirlwind, to be honest, since yesterday. I've been doing a lot of media commitments. Everyone wanted to speak to me regarding what I saw.

So I've not really had a chance to sort of sit down and take stock of what happened. But I'm all right. I'm hanging in there and doing all right. Yeah. Who were you with and what happened? So I was with a friend of mine. We'd come in from Manchester around about midday and we'd made our way eventually down towards the Liver Building. And we'd managed to sort of wedge ourselves in there with all the thousands of other people who were down there just waiting for the bus to arrive.

Weather was terrible, as you know. We were soaking wet, but we were still having a fantastic time. The atmosphere was absolutely bouncing. People were in top form. And then we were lucky enough to catch a glimpse of the players that came past. They went through quite quickly, which was a bit of a surprise. But like I said, it was raining, wasn't it? So they probably didn't want to be outside too much longer.

And then, so once the bus had headed off and it was heading towards the end of the parade route, we made the decision we'd sort of head into town and try and grab something to eat before trying to get back to Manchester. So like countless other people, we made the turn up Water Street and we were just making our way up there when we saw the ambulance coming down towards us and we saw the lights flashing, we heard the sirens blaring. And I said to my friend, I was like, oh, maybe someone's fallen ill, but at least, you know, the ambulance is on their way and hopefully they get the attention that they need.

Then we noticed the car was there and it seemed really out of place, obviously, because there were so many people walking up the street. And we'd actually tried to come down Water Street earlier in the day, but it had been barricaded off. So the fact that there was a car there just seemed really out of the ordinary. Then as we continued to sort of walk up, suddenly we noticed that people were shaking the car. We'd moved to the side at this point. People were shaking the car. They were hitting the car. They were rocking the car. And then it all suddenly changed. The car reversed very sharply and we had a bang as it hit the ambulance.

And then it just accelerated and accelerated into the crowd of people. And that's when, you know, basically all hell broke loose. People were flying left, right and center, trying to get out of the way, trying to die for safety. People screaming, people shouting, a lot of panic, people crying. We sort of realized what happened and we sort of moved forward because we noticed there was a gentleman basically lying on the floor, pretty much underneath the ambulance. I assume what had happened is he'd probably been hit when the car reversed. He must have been struck.

Well, that's certainly how it looked anyway. So he was underneath the ambulance. The ambulance thankfully wasn't moving. So we were alerting the ambulance drivers and the paramedics to the fact that there was basically someone almost underneath their ambulance so they could hopefully attend to him. Fortunately, as we got a little bit closer, he started to look like he was responding to people. So obviously we left the paramedics to do what they do best.

We started to move a bit further up the street and as we were doing so, the first responders were on the scene. They were asking people to move to the side to try and basically clear the way so they could get out and help people. We couldn't see the car at this point. It had gone, even though it wasn't that far away, it was still further away for us to be, for it to be outside. And I guess the people would have sort of surrounded it as well.

We saw a gentleman come towards us. He was in absolute floods of tears. My friend and I, we tried to console him, but we asked him what, you know, what happened and he couldn't actually tell us. So we just stayed with him until his friends came and found him and took him off to the side.

And at that point, my friend and I realized that, you know, we need to get off this street. We don't know if there's anything else that's going to subsequently happen. It didn't feel safe. So yeah, we moved to a side street and just basically to, to sort of gather our thoughts and just sort of kind of try and take stock of what happened. And that point we kind of really realized what we'd witnessed was something truly, truly awful.

doing what a lot of people do. We stuck our head into a pub there to try and have a drink to calm our nerves. And what was really quite interesting, Tony, was the fact that the people inside the pub had absolutely no idea what had just taken place. Only just a few meters away, the people were still inside having a great time. And we mentioned it to the bar staff, like there's been a serious incident outside. And they're like, what were you talking about? So,

yeah, that real interesting contrast of the people and the terror and the horror out on the street and the people inside who were, you know, blissfully for them, thankfully, I'm glad for them, completely unaware of what was happening. Yeah, I had the same, a very similar experience at Hillsborough, you know, coming out of the ground or people in the pubs and it's very disorienting. How are you actually processing it? You know, you said you've been busy all day so you haven't had time to think about it but it's

It's obviously going to have a huge effect on you because you're right there at

when this happens you know yeah um like i said i think because the fact i've been so busy today hasn't mean it means it hasn't really sunk in yet even though the fact that i've been speaking to people like a good self and kind of reliving it it's still and as vivid as it is it still perhaps hasn't fully sunk into exactly what we witnessed i think perhaps in the coming days when a bit more chance to sort of sit down and decompress a little bit might actually sort of

start to realize this sort of gravity of what we, uh, what we witnessed. And, you know, this, the, I've been thinking about it today. What's probably the most vivid in my mind is, is the noise of the people, just the people screaming, people shouting and just the sheer panic. And again, you know, something you'll be more than familiar with, uh,

And, you know, and what had been such a, an amazing day, you know, people, as we said, people, as we were walking up the street, people were singing, they were having a great time. Everyone was still buzzing from the fact we'd just seen the team, you know, celebrating that fantastic title win. Um,

And we think, right, you know, we'll continue to party on in town, get something to eat, you know, have a few more drinks before we head home. And then all of a sudden I heard someone describe it really well earlier. It's like suddenly all the wind had been sucked out of everyone's sails in that particular area anyway. Because when I was a little bit later on, I managed to get hold of a BBC colleague who thankfully gave me a lift back to Manchester, otherwise I'd probably still be stuck there now.

Um, but you still heard people who were, you know, celebrating and singing and cheering and stuff and having a great time. So don't know if how much, how many people actually, you know, and obviously when you've got hundreds of thousands of people on the streets, it's people aren't going to be able to know everything, but especially because there's so many people in such a short space, such a close space, the phone signal isn't that great. So, um,

I think it'll probably take a little bit of time. I've got two young kids who keep me occupied, so I haven't actually had much time to, in between doing all the media stuff, I haven't had much time other than to help look after the kids. So they're a great distraction and they've proved that today. Well done, thank you. We really appreciate it that you describe a terrifying, awful and surreal experience. Thank you. My pleasure.

Simon, we heard there from Dan, but you've been working on a piece with James, Kiva and Craig, talking to eyewitnesses. What did you hear? Well, after I found out about what had happened, I went into Liverpool last night and it was just getting dark by the time I got there, just to try and speak to as many people as I could, to try and gauge a feeling of...

What was happening and it was a surreal, surreal night I've got to say. It was raining heavily. People were sort of staggering around not really knowing where to go. It was difficult getting out of Liverpool of course because suddenly there was a security issue. I went down to Lyme Street and getting out of Lyme Street people had been waiting a long, long time. One guy you spoke to had been there for nearly three or four hours at that time.

They were just letting people in almost one by one through one entrance. And I was told, you know, by a police officer that that was because they were worried that they might be crushing, you know, on the platforms. From there, I got closer to where the incident happened. I also went to the Royal Hospital just to see whether I could...

sort of get a feeling for what was going on there. Down by Water Street and Dale Street, you know, this is an area, those people who aren't familiar with Liverpool, as James says, the geography is quite important. I mean, it's sort of on the flank of the business district, what's known as the business district now, where Dale Street meets Water Street. There's Castle Street in the middle of that with...

the town hall and along Castle Street it's become I don't know it feels like on a nice day you know the sun's out people are sitting out on the streets it feels very European obviously that wasn't happening last night a lot of the bars were still open people sort of trudging on a little bit it's a bit lively at the other end of town I've got to say the strange dynamic that was at play really a lot of people's phones had obviously drained of battery having been out all day and struggling to get

into the phones. And one or two people that I met weren't fully aware of what had happened because of that. They weren't able to contact friends. They weren't able to look at the phones. So it was being passed around, word of mouth, I think. You know, the people who were most distressed were obviously the people who were there who saw this unravel. And, you know, people who could see what had happened via the mobile phones. That didn't count for everybody, which sort of led to this sort of imbalance in the atmosphere, I'd say.

But yeah, the people who, it became very clear to me that, you know, I think when you see the footage, it looks like everybody who's there must have had a clear sight of what happened. But it happened so quickly, you know, that there was a big crowd. So you couldn't necessarily see what was going on 10, 15 yards in front of you. I spoke to one woman who ended up sort of being very close to getting run over without her necessarily knowing about it until the car sped past her.

Her experience was of being sort of crushed against the walls, people trying to get out of the way. That's all she could tell me, you know what I mean? So some of the recollections were quite narrow, I'd say. This morning we'd been putting together this piece and I was pretty confident that the following day it'd be a bit easier to sort of contact people. And I've got to say, James has done a great job of speaking to one or two eyewitnesses who sort of were able to speak a bit more clearly

sort of openly about what they saw but yeah it's just it's very very hard to sort of come to terms with because as we said at the beginning it was meant to be a day which concluded not just a season but a long period of time where people could celebrate and thankfully as we said as it stands I think the conditions of some of the people who've been caught up in this are improving but

All the thoughts are just with them at the moment. I mean, Liverpool winning a league is just totally irrelevant now. That means nothing to us. I mean, James, it's clear that once this event happened, the emergency services responded very quickly and very well. But there remains the big question, isn't there? How could a car be able to get into an area which is...

of full of people. I mean, you know, there were barriers to stop this sort of thing. Yeah, yeah. I mean, that's where there's some big questions that will need to be answered over the course of this investigation because, you know, from the people I spoke to, I spoke to

Liverpool fan called John LaRue who actually moved over to Wirral from Venezuela a few years ago as a result you know his love of Liverpool Football Club and you know he he said he was actually at that kind of where Dale Street becomes Water Street earlier on in the day and he said there were metal barriers between

there cordoning that part that part off that you just you just couldn't get down there where he said you know that then he he was actually on castle street just around the corner when the incident happened and said you know suddenly he had people running towards him screaming covered in blood you know he talked about just a picture of absolute panic and and chaos and then he said you know when they looked down water street there were just hundreds of fans surrounding this car and

Obviously, people were desperate to ensure that no one else suffered as a result of this incident. But yeah, I think people are asking questions and as much as there's shock and sadness, there's also anger in terms of how...

How could this happen? You know, I spoke to another Liverpool fan, Mark Madden from Northern Ireland, who was actually a little bit further up. He was probably, I'd say, two to 300 metres kind of away from the waterfront up on Dale Street. And he talked about seeing that Ford Galaxy car and he...

he said, you know, immediately struck him, you know, what on earth is that car doing here? Because he said, you know, because he was going against the crowd, and there's thousands of people going the other way. And, and that was, that was where he said, you know, it was, that was the first flashpoint, because he said, he said, it was miraculous that he didn't knock over a young kid at that point. And that was when people then responded by actually trying to get

get into his car to get him out because there was the fear at that point that

that something incredibly bad is about to happen. So, you know, and Mark Madden mentioned that, you know, from his recollections, there were no police around at that point on that part of Dale Street, which he said was near the William Hill betting shop on there. And, of course, you know, you're then thinking, well, how on earth does that car then...

not only get to the end of Dale Street, but then get down Water Street. And I know from that very recent police update we've had, you know, the school of thought is that it actually managed to tailgate an ambulance that had come into Water Street to treat someone who had suffered a suspected heart attack. So, but yeah, there's a lot of questions that need to be answered.

I think another thing people need to realise about the geography is that Water Street's very much a pinch point. The road narrows, you know, from sort of... It's almost like a T-junction, but there are two wider roads which narrow all of a sudden, so it would have been, you know, crammed with even more people. But, Si, the response of the city was, well, as you'd expect, you know...

But admirable to say the least. People helping with lifts, offering beds, charging people's phones in their houses, allowing them to use the Wi-Fi. I mean, everything that's good about Liverpool was shown there. Yeah, well, Greg Evans, our athletic reporter, he spoke to a few people about this. And, you know, there's a big reaction online. This is where, I mean, you know, I understand social media has its critics, but it can play...

and positive role in society as well because it was a lot easier for people who were caught up in this to communicate with people who wanted to help. There were examples of people who lived on Merseyside, driving visitors to the city, to Manchester, other parts of the country, as many as three or four journeys in the night. And as you say, Tony, setting people up who were stranded with a place to stay so that they could...

they could at least try and get some sleep after all this so you know it's as you say it's it's it's uplifting to see people willing to help in such a dire situation you know obviously we can speak with a little bit more positivity at the moment but nobody was aware at that time it seemed with all probability there was going to be fatalities um

you know he just needed to look at the footage to appreciate that so again you know Liverpool people have stepped forwards and that's another thing that I think people can be proud of yeah definitely definitely

And James, what's the mood inside the club? I imagine there's a lot of people distraught. Yeah, I think obviously we've, you know, Jurgen Klopp put out a statement this morning that, you know, how devastated he was because, of course, you know, it was his, this bank holiday weekend was his first trip back to the city and, you know, would have brought him so much joy up to that sickening news on Monday night. The players as well.

A lot of them have used their social media to send their thoughts and prayers to everyone affected. Virgil van Dijk saying, we are with you. Kenny Doglish as well, talking about how Liverpool's anthem of you never walk alone rings truer than ever in moments like this. And I know various kind of intellectuals

internal club events that were organized for today in terms of the ongoing title celebrations were shelved I know LFC TV you know some of their celebratory programs today that were supposed to look back on the title winning season they've they've all been cancelled because nobody is in the mood for it that's the that's the the heartbreaking thing that it's you know when something like this happens it just puts everything into perspective doesn't it and um yeah it's

It's just quite hard to fathom, really, because when I think back over the last few days and just how absolutely magical it was until it wasn't, and then it was absolutely horrific. Yeah. And that's it from Walk On, the full podcast brought to you by The Athletic. Thanks to James and Simon and Dan for joining us, and you for listening. That's all for now. Keep safe. We'll be back soon.

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