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Witnesses Describe What Liverpool Taxi Driver Said After He Jumped Out Of Car

Witnesses Describe What Liverpool Taxi Driver Said After He Jumped Out Of Car

A security guard who was close to the incident has given his version of events following David Perry's heroic actions.

Anish Vij

Anish Vij

An eye witness to the taxi driver who managed to lock a suicide bomber in his car outside the Liverpool Women's Hospital has revealed what he said after almost losing his life.

David Perry, who has been labelled a hero, was left with minor injuries following the explosion that killed suicide bomber Emad Al Swealmeen when he detonated an explosive device in his cab.

Security guard Darren Knowles was close to the scene and rushed to help Perry after the terrorist set off the bomb.

Knowles, 50, told The Mirror: "I just grabbed him and tried to get him to safety."

When reliving the incident, he recalled Perry saying 'I want my wife' after escaping the explosion.

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Knowles continued: "He was trying to tell us, 'There is a passenger, there is a passenger'.

"I was trying to say to him, 'Is he still in there', and he was saying, 'He has tried to blow me up, he has tried to blow me up'.

"It all happened in a flash. I was just pumping my tyre up on my car.

"I saw the taxi pull up as they do. I heard a loud bang and thought it was mechanical failure in the taxi. I thought the engine had caught fire.

"But then I saw the taxi driver run out. He was panicking and screaming, 'Someone has blown me up'."

Knowles then said he saw blood pouring from the cabbie's ear.

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He said: "I grabbed him and tried to get him to safety as quickly as possible because I had a feeling something else was going to go off.

"My first priority was stopping the taxi driver going back to the car, because he had his phone and other things in it and he wanted to get them out. I took him to the nearest nurse to get medical attention.

"I did not think about myself I was thinking of getting the taxi driver to safety before anything else went up.

"He was screaming, panicking. We were just saying, 'Calm down, let's just see to you'.

"I handed him over to a nurse. He went into the staff entrance and sat down there and that was the last I saw of him."

Darren, who lives with his partner and two of their three children, said: "Everyone is calling me a hero but I was just doing my job."

He said he immediately thought the explosion was a terror attack, but "couldn't say the words because we did not want to scare people".

Featured Image Credit: Alamy

Topics: Liverpool