LONDON — British police say an explosion in a taxi outside a hospital that killed a man is being treated as a terrorist incident, but the motive remains unclear.
Russ Jackson, the head of Counterterrorism Policing in northwest England, said the blast on Sunday at Liverpool Women's Hospital involved an improvised explosive device.
Jackson told media outlets that a taxi driver picked up a passenger, who asked to be taken to the hospital.
"As the taxi approached the drop-off point at the hospital, an explosion occurred from within the car," Jackson said, according to the BBC. "This quickly engulfed it in flames."
The explosion on Sunday took place a "short distance away" from a Remembrance Day program.
"We cannot at this time draw any connection with this, but it is a line of inquiry we are pursuing," Jackson said, according to the BBC.
The male passenger in the taxi died in the explosion. The driver was able to escape from the car. He was treated at a local hospital for his injuries but has since been released.
"Inquiries will now continue to seek to understand how the device was built, the motivation for the incident, and to understand if anyone else was involved in it," Jackson said.
Four men in their 20s have been detained under the Terrorism Act in connection with the explosion.