Liverpool suspect's wife 'found out about crash when she saw her car on TV'

A 53-year-old white British man was arrested when a car ploughed into a crowd of people during Liverpool FC’s victory parade (Picture: BBC)

The wife of a man accused of driving into Liverpool victory parade crowds only realised he was involved when she saw her car on TV,neighbours have said.

They described the 53-year-old suspect,a company director and father of three,as a helpful family man with well-behaved children.

He is now being held in custody accused of attempted murder after injuring 79 people on Monday.

A neighbour told The Sun: ‘The wife is a really nice woman and they have children.

‘No one can believe this has happened.

Get personalised updates on Liverpool every day

Wake up to find news on your club in your inbox every morning with Metro’s Football Newsletter.Sign up to our newsletter and then select your team in the link we’ll send you so we can get football news tailored to you.‘She first realised when she saw it was her car on the telly,when she saw it being driven at the parade.‘The normal police cars turned up at teatime then Matrix vans turned up later that night.’Neighbours of the suspect have reacted to the news (Picture: BBC)A Liverpool FC fan is taken away from the scene by the emergency services (Picture: Action Images via Reuters)When police descended on their home,neighbours initially thought they had been the victim of a burglary.One of them said: ‘It’s completely out of character. They are a nice family,the boys are well behaved.‘He came over to help us once when our alarm went off. I know he did the same for our immediate neighbours,too.‘It just doesn’t make any sense. Maybe he’s had some kind of a breakdown,maybe he just panicked in the moment?’Peter Cunningham,54,a dad-of-three,was bombarded with calls and texts from family and friends after he was falsely accused of driving the car into the crowds.His name and photograph were circulated and connected to the incident and he said he was not at the parade or in the city centre.Peter said he messaged the account he believes was first to share his photo in connection with the incident and the post has now been taken down.The 53-year-old suspect is being held at a police station in Merseyside following his arrest on suspicion of multiple attempted murders,driving under the influence of drugs and dangerous driving.He is believed to have tailgated an ambulance that had been allowed through the cordon to get to someone having a heart attack.Police confirmed that the incident is not being treated as terror related (Picture: AFP via Getty Images)A video shared exclusively with Metro showed the man driving into the crowd ‘deliberately’.Radoslav Stamboliev,who filmed the clip,told Metro he thought the driver was ‘coming straight for us deliberately,completely straight faced’ and said there were children ‘everywhere’.He had travelled up from London to watch the game,said he heard accelerating behind him before he jumped out of the way just in time.He said: ‘I heard this massive engine revving behind me and he started to honk his horn as well.‘He lunged forward and it felt like he was coming straight for us deliberately,completely straight faced.‘Because he made so much noise before coming at us most of us moved out of the way in time.’The incident is not being treated as terrorism by police.Police gave an update about the number of people injured and the number in hospital

(Credits: Peter Byrne/PA Wire)Detective Superintendent Rachel Wilson said: ‘I’m pleased to say that the number of people in hospital is reducing as they continue to recover from the awful incident.‘We continue to support those still receiving treatment and as part of our enquiries we are identifying more people who were injured.‘I want to reassure the public that detectives are making significant progress as we seek to establish the full circumstances that led to what happened.‘In addition,extensive CCTV enquiries are being carried out across the city to establish the movements of the car,a Ford Galaxy,before the incident took place.‘We’ve already had an incredible response from many of those who were there on the day and I thank them for their co-operation.’