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		</div><p>Witnesses to the Liverpool bomb attack have described the moments they tried to rescue the suspect and taxi driver seconds after the blast.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.”</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Mr Spencer (21) told the BBC: “Explosions just went off and it shook the hospital building.</p>
<p>&#8220;Then I got closer to the car, I could smell the smoke and I could see the man in the back.</p>
<p>“I went to grab him, but he got engulfed in flames very quickly.</p>
<p>“I couldn’t reach a hold of him without setting myself on fire.”</p>
<p>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!’”</p>
<p>“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.</p>
<p>“It’s not going to have a hold on me at all…I do feel very lucky to be alive.”</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>He told the Daily Mirror: “He was panicking and screaming, ‘Someone has blown me up. I want my wife’.</p>
<p>“He was trying to tell us, ‘There is a passenger, there is a passenger’.</p>
<p>“I was trying to say to him, ‘Is he still in there’, and he was saying, ‘He has tried to blow me up’.”</p>
<p>Mr Knowles added: “Everyone is calling me a hero, but I was just doing my job.</p>
<p>“My hands were shaking when I realised how close I was to being blown up. But you don’t think, you just do.”</p>
<p>Iraq-born Al Swealmeen (32) who was a Christian convert, died in the explosion while Mr Perry escaped with injuries.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>The cordon was later removed from Boaler Street, but Mr Jackson said the public may still see EOD officers in the area on Thursday.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Searches have also been carried out at a property in Rutland Avenue.</p>
<p>Mr Jackson confirmed reports that the asylum seeker had suffered periods of mental illness and this is being explored as part of the investigation.</p>
<p>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.</p>
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