Witnesses to the Liverpool bomb attack have described the moments they tried to rescue the suspect and taxi driver seconds after the blast.
Delivery driver Liam Spencer has revealed how he tried to “grab” attacker Emad Al Swealmeen from the car moments after it exploded outside Liverpool Women’s Hospital on Sunday.
Security guard Darren Knowles meanwhile rushed to the aid of taxi driver David Perry after he fled the vehicle, and said Mr Perry was screaming: “Someone has blown me up. I want my wife.”
Mr Spencer’s partner Stephanie Stitt (20) was parked in a car just metres from the taxi when the bomb, which police believe to have been built by Al Swealmeen, was set off.
Mr Spencer (21) told the BBC: “Explosions just went off and it shook the hospital building.
“Then I got closer to the car, I could smell the smoke and I could see the man in the back.
“I went to grab him, but he got engulfed in flames very quickly.
“I couldn’t reach a hold of him without setting myself on fire.”
Ms Stitt, a student mental health nurse, added: “I was like, ‘Is there a baby in the back?’ And we found out there was a passenger, so everyone was screaming ‘999!’”
“It’s scary to just think about how things could have been different to be honest. You do struggle with [thinking] ‘Is that ever going to happen again? Am I going to get over this?’ I’ve said to myself and my family I’m not going to let it affect me.
“It’s not going to have a hold on me at all…I do feel very lucky to be alive.”
Mr Knowles described hearing a “loud bang” at the time of the explosion, and said he believed it was a mechanical failure before seeing Mr Perry rush from the taxi.
He told the Daily Mirror: “He was panicking and screaming, ‘Someone has blown me up. I want my wife’.
“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’.”
Mr Knowles added: “Everyone is calling me a hero, but I was just doing my job.
“My hands were shaking when I realised how close I was to being blown up. But you don’t think, you just do.”
Iraq-born Al Swealmeen (32) who was a Christian convert, died in the explosion while Mr Perry escaped with injuries.
Officers have described how Al Swealmeen had rented a property in Liverpool seven months ago and had started making “relevant purchases” for his homemade bomb “at least” since that time.
A Royal Logistics Corp bomb disposal vehicle arrived at Boaler Street on Wednesday along with a fire engine after a police cordon in nearby Sutcliffe Street, where officers believe Al Swealmeen previously lived, was extended.
Several suspicious packages were found, and were examined by explosive ordinance disposal (EOD) officers before being recovered by forensic teams, Assistant Chief Constable Russ Jackson said.
The cordon was later removed from Boaler Street, but Mr Jackson said the public may still see EOD officers in the area on Thursday.
Merseyside Police Chief Constable Serena Kennedy told the Liverpool Echo that high-visibility policing will continue around the city in the run-up to Christmas as a way to reassure residents and visitors.
Searches have also been carried out at a property in Rutland Avenue.
Mr Jackson confirmed reports that the asylum seeker had suffered periods of mental illness and this is being explored as part of the investigation.
Al Swealmeen, who had an asylum application rejected in 2014 after arriving in the UK, had a fresh appeal on his asylum application at the time of his death.
