A 53-year-old man was detained by police after driving his car at speed through a packed crowd of people, injuring many, at the Liverpool Football Club trophy parade.

There were reports of a car colliding with “a number of pedestrians,” the Merseyside Police said on social media. “The car stopped at the scene and a male detained.” Police later said a 53-year-old British man from the Liverpool area was arrested.

By 11pm local time (8am AEST) no fatalities had been reported.

Assistant Chief Constable Jenny Sims said “a number of people” have been injured and were taken to hospital while a “large number” of people of all ages were injured but treated at the scene. She said the incident is not being treated as terrorism.

David Kitchen of the North West Ambulance Service told a news conference they were “horrified and saddened” by the events.

He said 27 patients were taken to various hospitals across Liverpool.

“Sadly four of the injured were children,” Kitchen said.

“We are in direct contact with Merseyside Police regarding the incident on Water Street which happened towards the end of the trophy parade earlier this evening,” Liverpool FC said in a statement. “Our thoughts and prayers are with those who have been affected by this serious incident.”

Thousands of fans were lining the streets of Liverpool to watch the team’s players celebrate winning the Premier League trophy.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer wrote on social media that “the scenes in Liverpool are appalling.”

“My thoughts are with all those injured or affected,” he wrote. “I want to thank the police and emergency services for their swift and ongoing response to this shocking incident.”

Dan Ogunshakin, a BBC reporter, witnessed part of the incident.

“The mood was one of celebration, of happiness, of joy and then all of a sudden we noticed an ambulance was moving down the crowd and I said to my friend, ‘I wonder if someone had fallen ill’, as obviously the ambulance is attending to someone.”

He says he saw a grey car in front of the ambulance and “suddenly a lot of people started to surround it”.

“Then what we noticed was people were hitting the car and shaking the car and we wondered why this was suddenly happening.”

He says the car then reversed and knocked people away from it, and then “it suddenly accelerated forwards” straight towards the crowd of people.

“What had once been an atmosphere of celebration and joy and happiness suddenly turned into fear and terror and disbelief.”