Fergal O’Neill (51) and Eugene O’Connor (46) from Co Limerick were among Liverpool FC fans who witnessed the immediate aftermath of a car ploughing into a crowd of people during the club’s Premier League football trophy parade on Monday.
The friends travelled together with a group for the parade and were staying in an apartment on Water Street, where the incident took place.
O’Neill was walking through the crowds ahead of the group – “about 20ft away from getting on to Water Street” – when he “saw the car going flying past”.
“There was loads of shouting, then loads of women and children started running at me down the road screaming.”
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In a state of shock, Mr O’Neill walked towards the scene. “I don’t know why but I kept on walking. I got on to Water Street and it was just like a film, I had never seen anything like it.
There were bodies everywhere. There was a lot of anger towards the police. The police had pepper-sprayed a lot of people."
He remembers assisting a young man who had been pepper-sprayed: “I gave him a few tissues and tried to calm him down.”
Mr O’Neill recalls seeing the vehicle that had driven through the crowds. “All the windows were smashed in and the police were fighting with” people who were trying to tackle the driver, he said.
“I keep replaying it. It was a very surreal situation,”
Mr O’Neill had been separated from Mr O’Connor and their friends during the commotion, and was unable to return to their apartment on Water Street, which had been cordoned off. He walked to the Adelphi Hotel where “there must have been 100 people in the reception”.
“Everyone was afraid to leave. There was a rumour that there was a bomb in the train station. The whole city was just unnerved because of that as well.
At about 8pm, the two men were reunited and caught a bus to John Lennon Airport, where they stayed overnight before flying back into Shannon Airport on Tuesday morning.
“We came on the scene maybe 30 seconds after it happened,” said Mr O’Connor, of the rest of the group. “We were on the way up the docks after the festival. There were hundreds and thousands of people so it was a bit crazy ... It was such a joyous occasion.
“We were about 20m away from Water Street and then we heard a lot of commotion and people started coming running towards us. It was mayhem.”
He managed to return to the Water Street apartment before access was blocked off.
“Communications were down. Phone lines were down,” he recalls. “There was so many people in the city it was actually a nightmare to get anywhere. The train station was just overwhelmed, thousands of people queuing for four or five hours to get out of Liverpool. It was carnage. I don’t think people knew what was going on.”
Jenna Berry (37), from Killinick, Co Wexford, was on Water Street with her husband Alan and their 11-year-old son Theo when the incident took place.
The family were staying in Manchester, and travelled to Liverpool on the train on Monday.
“Half way up the street, there was a man who started saying ‘Guys, make the way clear for an ambulance’. We heard the sirens and stuff, so then we stood to one side,” said Ms Berry.
The family moved out of the “jam-packed” crowd on to some steps, where they had a clearer view of the scene.
“Behind the ambulance there was a family wagon and the windscreen was all smashed. We just heard people screaming and there was a load of men chasing the vehicle. There were people smashing in the back window, fans, trying to kick in the side window. The police were just kind of watching them and letting them do it.”
Ms Berry said they soon moved to the train station, where they found themselves “locked out” with “thousands of people” trying to leave the city. After queuing “for three hours”, the family managed to get a taxi back to Manchester, arriving there around midnight.
A Liverpool fan from Co Down has said he was in “agony” after being hit by the car driven into the crowds at the celebrations.
Jack Trotter from Newtownards was in Water Street when the car ploughed through the crowds.
He recalled how he managed to dodge the full force of the car, but it still hit him. His girlfriend Abbie Gallagher was also hit by the vehicle, but she was not badly injured, he said.
Mr Trotter said he was taken by ambulance to hospital and treated overnight.
On his Facebook page he thanked people who had sent him messages of goodwill. He said that although he was “in agony”, he was hopeful his injuries were “nothing too serious”.
A 53-year-old white British man from the Liverpool area was arrested in connection with the “horrific incident”, Merseyside Police said. They are not treating it as terrorism.
More than 40 people were injured in the melee. Two who were seriously injured remain in hospital.
You’ll Never Walk Alone (YWNA) Ireland chairman Jonathan Smyth said he and 25 other Irish fans were enjoying the parade when they heard what had happened.
“Everybody was in a party atmosphere. We were all out cheering,” he said. “News started going around that there had been an incident.”
Mr Smyth said there was a mood of foreboding as people did not know if it was a terrorist incident or if anybody had been killed.
“There was a sombre atmosphere afterwards. People were fearing the worst. There were rumours of incidents at the train station and at a bar. We all just went home. It wasn’t a night to be in the pub celebrating.”
