LONDON – British police arrested three men under terrorism laws Sunday after a car exploded outside a hospital in Liverpool, killing one man and injuring another.
Counter-terrorism police said the three men, whose ages ranged from 21 to 29, were detained in the Kensington area of the northwest England city under the Terrorism Act.
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Police also cordoned off another residential street in the city. They did not disclose details of the operation.
Police were called to reports of a blast involving a taxi at Liverpool Women’s Hospital on Sunday morning. Photos showed a vehicle in flames near the hospital's main entrance.
Merseyside Police said in a statement that the vehicle, a taxi, “pulled up at the hospital shortly before the explosion occurred. Work is still going on to establish what has happened and could take some time before we are in a position to confirm anything.”
The male passenger of the car died and the driver was being treated for non life-threatening injuries, police said.
The explosion occurred just before 11 a.m. on Remembrance Sunday, the time people across Britain pause in memory of those killed in wars.
Police said the explosion had not been declared a terrorist attack and they were keeping an open mind about the cause, but counter-terrorism police were leading the investigation.
Britain's interior minister, Home Secretary Priti Patel, said she was “being kept regularly updated on the awful incident.”
The Liverpool Women’s Hospital said it immediately restricted visiting access until further notice and diverted patients to other hospitals “where possible.”
Fire services said they extinguished the car fire rapidly, and a person had left the car before the fire “developed to the extent that it did.”