LONDON (Reuters) – A homemade explosive device which blew up in a taxi in Liverpool on Sunday had ball bearings attached that could have caused significant injury and death had it detonated in different circumstances, counter terrorism police said on Friday.
Authorities declared the blast a terrorist incident. The suspect died after an explosion engulfed a taxi in flames, while the taxi driver was treated for injuries.
“It was made using homemade explosive and had ball bearings attached to it which would have acted as shrapnel. Had it detonated in different circumstances we believe it would have caused significant injury or death,” Russ Jackson, Head of Counter Terrorism Police North West, said of the device.
“We still do not know how or why the device exploded when it did, but we are not discounting it being completely unintentional, and it is a possibility that the movement of the vehicle or its stopping caused the ignition.”
(Reporting by Alistair Smout and Michael Holden; editing by James Davey)
