Brexit leader Nigel Farage has criticised the UK’s “weak leaders” after a deadly vehicle explosion outside of a Liverpool hospital on Remembrance Sunday, which has since been declared a terror attack. The government has since raised the threat risk to Severe.

On Monday, Greater Manchester Police’s counter-terrorism unit confirmed that the explosion of a taxi-cab outside of Liverpool Women’s Hospital on Sunday — that resulted in the death of the suspected bomber inside the vehicle and the injury of the driver — is being treated as a “terrorist incident”.

The explosion occurred shortly before 11 am, the traditional two minute’s silence on Remembrance Sunday to honour the war dead and veterans. There were suspicions around the timing of the explosion on that day, with Assistant Chief Constable Jackson saying that while the motive for the attack is not known, an assault on Remembrance services remains “a line of inquiry” that counter-terror officers are pursuing.

Later on Monday, the British government announced that it was elevating its threat level from Substantial to Severe, the second-highest threat level, meaning that an attack is highly likely.

The government said in a statement: “Following yesterday’s incident in Liverpool, the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre (JTAC) has today (15 November) taken the decision to raise the UK National Threat Level from SUBSTANTIAL, meaning an attack is likely, to SEVERE, meaning an attack is highly likely.

“The decision has been driven by two terrorist incidents in the past month, reflecting the diverse, complex and volatile nature of the terrorist threat in the UK.”

The last time the threat level was raised to Severe was in November 2020, following several Islamist terror attacks in Europe. The threat level was lowered again to Substantial in February of this year, but has been at Severe most of the time since 2014, and was briefly raised to the highest level of Critical, meaning “highly likely in the near future”, twice in 2017, including following the deadly Manchester Arena Islamist terror attack that claimed 22 lives.

Three men in their 20s have been arrested in Liverpool under the Terrorism Act, but no details of their identities beyond their ages were given.

Remarking on the incident after the threat level was raised, Brexit leader Nigel Farage slammed the weakness of the British government, saying: “We have too many people in our country who hate everything that we stand for. This is all the fault of our weak leaders.”

Following Prime Minister Boris Johnson telling Britons to “remain utterly vigilant”, Farage tweeted: “Does staying vigilant mean protecting our borders, Boris Johnson? If so, why are you allowing tens of thousands of undocumented young men into the country illegally?”

The taxi driver is being labelled a hero for reportedly locking the suicide bomber inside his vehicle before he could detonate his bomb around any innocent civilians. Named in the press as Dave Perry, the driver reportedly noticed his passenger behaving oddly and that he was fiddling with something attached to his clothing, before jumping out of the vehicle and locking the door, with the device detonating as soon as he had done so. The driver is currently in hospital being treated for his injuries.