Liverpool Women’s Hospital bombing

At about 10:59 GMT on 14 November 2021, Remembrance Sunday, a homemade improvised explosive device detonated inside a taxi as it pulled up at the main entrance of Liverpool Women's Hospital. The passenger, 32-year-old Emad Al Swealmeen, was killed. The driver, David Perry, escaped the burning vehicle and was treated for injuries before being released. According to the PBS News (Associated Press), three men in their twenties were arrested under terrorism legislation that day and a fourth the following day; all four were later released without charge.

On 15 November 2021 police declared the explosion a terrorist incident and the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre raised the UK threat level from substantial to severe, as the Associated Press reported. Al Swealmeen, who had arrived in the UK around 2014 and been refused asylum, had built the device from components bought legally over several months, renting a flat on Rutland Avenue to assemble it. Counter Terrorism Policing North West later assessed that the device was unstable and likely detonated earlier than intended.

When CTPNW published its investigation findings in October 2023, it concluded that Al Swealmeen acted alone in a planned attack and that, as Birkenhead News reported, the motive was likely anger toward the British state over repeated asylum rejections, compounded by his mental health struggles. Investigators found no evidence he held extremist views and no indication he intended to strike any target other than the hospital.

This was a lone-actor bombing, not state-directed hybrid warfare. UK counter-terror police formally designated it a terrorist incident, but the legal designation should not be read as proof of ideological terrorism: investigators found no evidence of extremist views and concluded the most likely driver was personal grievance over rejected asylum claims aggravated by mental illness. Because Al Swealmeen died in the blast, his precise intent cannot be confirmed, and police acknowledged gaps that may never be closed. The case is best understood as an individual act with an established but not fully proven motive.