The taxi driver who was involved in the terror attack at Liverpool Women’s Hospital last month has revealed how the last passenger he picked up before bomber Emad Al Swealmeen said something that ‘really stuck in his mind’, and made him realise just ‘how lucky he had been’.
David Perry managed to escape with minor injuries from the blast, which killed Al Swealmeen when he detonated an improvised explosive device outside the hospital on 14 November.
The initial blast caused the windows of the taxi to shatter into pieces, also setting the vehicle on fire while 32-year-old Al Swealmeen was still inside.
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Speaking via the coroner at Liverpool and Wirral Coroner’s Court, Perry revealed that his last pickup before Al Swealmeen had departed with a haunting message as she left the taxi – recalling how a young girl wished him all her ‘luck’ as she got out.
At court today, Senior Coroner Andre Rebello said: “He recalls the last fare being on Allerton Road. He remembers a young girl specifically as she said to him 'I have given you all my luck' as she got out of the car.
"This really stuck in his mind and made him think how lucky he had been."
The conversation with Al Swealmeen had been far less emotive, with Rebello saying the ‘only words’ uttered were 'Women’s Hospital’.
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Perry told the court through Rebello how he blacked out moments before he managed to escape the taxi, having smelt burning on his back.
"He could see smoke and smell burning plastic and the smell of burning body and thought 'I'm dead if I don't get out',” Rebello said of Perry.
"He saw light coming from the floor near his driver's door and, without taking his seatbelt off, he pushed the door as hard as he could to force himself out of the car.
"He didn't know if the passenger was still in there, he didn't turn round to look at him."
Perry also described the force of the bomb’s blast as feeling like a wagon had crashed into his taxi – eventually staggering out to find a man wearing a hi-vis jacket approaching him.
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"He recalls saying to him 'the b*****d tried to bomb me',” the inquest was told.
Rebello confirmed that Al Swealmeen ‘died from an explosion and subsequent fire caused by an improvised explosive device which he had carried into the taxi’.
It was found he had manufactured the device, which had been ‘designed to project shrapnel’, with ‘murderous intent’, but said it still remains ‘unclear’ as to whether or not the bomb was detonated where it was intended.
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