The man who set off an explosive device in a taxi outside a Liverpool hospital on Sunday had been buying components for the device for months and had a history of mental illness, the police said on Wednesday.

The police have said they believe the man, who was the only person killed in the blast, was a 32-year-old named Emad Al Swealmeen.
According to the police, he was originally from Iraq, but the authorities have said they are still trying to understand the motivation for the attack in the northern English city, which is being treated as an act of terrorism.

“A complex picture is emerging over the purchases of the component parts of the device,” Russ Jackson, the head of counterterrorist policing for northwestern England, said in a statement on Wednesday.

He said that as early as April, when Al Swealmeen had rented a property in Liverpool, he had made “relevant purchases”.

“Our enquiries have found that Al Swealmeen has had episodes of mental illness — this will form part of the investigation and will take some time to fully understand,” he added. He did not provide any details about the illness. In the wake of the blast in Liverpool, UK’s national terrorism threat level was raised from “substantial” to “severe” on Monday, indicating that another attack was “highly likely”.

New York Times News Service