Following an outside a hospital in Liverpool on Sunday morning, the MI5 has raised the terror threat level to "severe" indicating that an attack is highly likely. A taxi exploded at the Women's Hospital in Liverpool city centre, leaving at least one dead. The police have arrested four people in connection to the blast.
The police believe a passenger carried an IED in the taxi, which exploded as the cab arrived outside the reception of the hospital. The blast left the driver dead. The decision to raise the threat level was taken by the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre (JTAC) due to two incidents in the last month alone.
The previous attack took place a month ago, where Conservative MP Sir David Amess was stabbed to death in Essex. The attack was declared a terrorist incident.
Home Secretary's official statement
In view of these attacks, Home Secretary Priti Patel spoke to the reporters.
The prime minister has this afternoon just chaired a Cobra meeting and I attended that meeting too - and the points to note from that meeting is that, first of all, the incident has been declared as a terrorist incident, the police have now declared that. But, secondly, the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre - JTAC - are now increasing the United Kingdom's threat level from substantial to severe.
And there is a reason for that, and that reason is that what we saw yesterday is the second incident in a month. Now, of course that means we continue to work with our world class security, intelligence and policing services - representatives from those agencies."
The "severe" level is the second-highest alert, right below "critical." The last time the UK raised the threat level to "critical" was in September 2017 after the Parsons Green train bombing. The other threat levels include low, which means an attack is highly unlikely; moderate means an attack is possible but not likely; substantial, which means an attack is likely; followed by severe and critical.
Taxi blast in Liverpool
Police in the city confirmed the blast happened at around 11 a.m. on Sunday at the Women's Hospital in Liverpool city centre, Xinhua news agency reported.
Photographs posted on social media showed a taxi in flames and ambulances and firefighters were also called to the scene. Police placed a cordon around the hospital while inquiries continued to determine the cause of the explosion.
