Liverpool is a soccer-mad city whose identity is woven with trophies and tragedies

LONDON (AP) — Liverpool is no stranger to triumph on the sports field, or tragedy off it.

The northwest English port city experienced both joy and anguish on Monday: As fans lined the streets to celebrate Liverpool Football Club winning the Premier League title this season, a minivan crashed into the crowd. Police said more than 60 people were hurt, with 11 still hospitalized Tuesday. Police arrested the 53-year-old driver on suspicion of attempted murder but said they are not treating it as an act of terrorism.

Euphoria – at least for those who support Liverpool FC over its local rival Everton – turned in an instant to chaos and grief. Within hours, came pledges of resilience and unity for a city that has weathered so much before — including deadly disasters at two stadiums hosting Liverpool games in the 1980s.

“It’s supposed to be celebrations and instead the day is always going to be remembered for this now, instead of the trophy parade like it was supposed to,” said Aaron Jones, a 28-year-old fan who was nearby and saw the emergency response.

“Because of disasters we’ve had in the past, everyone’s just connecting it to the same sort of group of disasters, you know what I mean? It should have been happy times, but (it’s) been tainted.”

Liverpool was one of the world’s busiest ports in the 18th and 19th centuries, but endured decades of hardship in the 20th. It weathered World War II bombing, the decline of its once-bustling docks and mass unemployment in the 1980s.

Those tough years reinforced the city’s underdog self-image, as a northern, heavily Irish-influenced city far from British centers of power in London.

Renewal for the city that gave birth to The Beatles has come in recent decades through reinventing Liverpool as a magnet for tourists seeking culture, nightlife — and soccer.

Both the city’s Premier League teams have legions of fans around the world. Liverpool FC, in particular, is one of the most decorated teams in global soccer, with dozens of British and international trophies to its name.

But the success has come alongside tragedy for a club whose anthem is “You’ll Never Walk Alone.”

On Tuesday, Liverpool FC’s homepage offered thoughts to those affected by the crash and referenced the disasters at Heysel and Hillsborough stadiums that had a profound impact on the club and its identity.

On May 29, 1985, Liverpool played Italian team Juventus in the European Cup final at Heysel Stadium in Brussels.

Crowd disorder before kickoff culminated in a surge by Liverpool fans into an adjacent stand containing mostly Juventus supporters. In the ensuing chaos, some were trampled or suffocated to death as they tried to flee the violence and others died when a retaining wall collapsed.

A total of 39 people — 32 from Italy, four from Belgium, two from France and one from Northern Ireland — died and around 600 were injured.

Liverpool fans were largely blamed for the violence. Twenty-six were arrested, and 14 of them convicted of involuntary manslaughter.

Many also attributed the disorder to the dilapidated condition of Heysel, a 55,000-capacity structure with outdated standing-room only stands, flimsy fences and crumbling walls inside and outside, as well as poor organization from police and UEFA, European soccer’s governing body.

The 40th anniversary of the disaster is on Thursday.

Four years later, a crush during a game against Nottingham Forest at Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield ultimately left 97 Liverpool fans dead.

The catastrophe unfolded when more than 2,000 Liverpool fans were allowed to flood into a standing-room section behind a goal with the stadium already nearly full for the game. The victims were crushed against metal anti-riot fences or trampled underfoot, and many suffocated.

The tragedy of Britain’s deadliest sports disaster was compounded by a coverup into the cause and missteps by police.

With hooliganism rife in English soccer throughout the 1980s and memories of Heysel still fresh, a false narrative that blamed drunken, ticketless and rowdy Liverpool fans was created by police and spread by sections of the media.

Bereaved families campaigned for years to correct the record, finally securing an inquest jury’s 2016 verdict that police and emergency services were to blame for the disaster and the victims were “unlawfully killed.”

The city has a long memory. To this day many Liverpudlians refuse to read tabloid newspaper The Sun, which ran stories alleging that fans had attacked police and robbed the dead.

Many Liverpudlians — whether Liverpool or Everton fans — pledged that the city would come together after the latest tragedy.

Everton FC issued a statement of condolence, setting aside rivalry to say: “As a city we stand together.”

Steve Rotheram, mayor of the Liverpool City Region, said he’d heard multiple accounts of people opening their doors so distraught strangers could take shelter in their homes amid Monday’s chaos.

“There were offers of lifts in cars so that people could get to their destinations,” he said. “This is the true humanity of the great people of this city.”

Associated Press journalist Kwiyeon Ha in Liverpool, England, contributed to this story.

AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

FILE - Soccer fans are crushed against a collapsing wall in the Brussels Heysel stadium just prior to the European Cup final soccer match between Liverpool and Juventus, in Brussels, Belgium, May 29, 1985. (AP Photo/Gianni Foggia, File)

Crowds greet the Liverpool soccer team during their Premier League winners parade in Liverpool, England, Monday, May 26, 2025. (Owen Humphreys/PA via AP)

Police and emergency personnel deal with an incident after a car collided with pedestrians near the Liver Building during the Premier League winners parade in Liverpool, England, Monday, May 26, 2025.(AP Photo/Jon Super)

Scooters lie on the site where a 53-year-old British man plowed a minivan into a crowd of Liverpool soccer fans who were celebrating the city's Premier League championship Monday, injuring more than 45 people in Liverpool, England, Tuesday, May 27, 2025.(AP Photo/Jon Super)

FILE - Stewards and supporters tend and care for wounded supporters on the field at Hillsborough Stadium, in Sheffield, England, April 15, 1989. (AP Photo, File)

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump said Iran wants to negotiate with Washington after his threat to strike the Islamic Republic over its bloody crackdown on protesters, a move coming as activists said Monday the death toll in the nationwide demonstrations rose to at least 544.

Iran had no immediate reaction to the news, which came after the foreign minister of Oman — long an interlocutor between Washington and Tehran — traveled to Iran this weekend. It also remains unclear just what Iran could promise, particularly as Trump has set strict demands over its nuclear program and its ballistic missile arsenal, which Tehran insists is crucial for its national defense.

Meanwhile Monday, Iran called for pro-government demonstrators to head to the streets in support of the theocracy, a show of force after days of protests directly challenging the rule of 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Iranian state television aired chants from the crowd, who shouted “Death to America!” and “Death to Israel!”

Trump and his national security team have been weighing a range of potential responses against Iran including cyberattacks and direct strikes by the U.S. or Israel, according to two people familiar with internal White House discussions who were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

“The military is looking at it, and we’re looking at some very strong options,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Sunday night. Asked about Iran’s threats of retaliation, he said: “If they do that, we will hit them at levels that they’ve never been hit before.”

Trump said that his administration was in talks to set up a meeting with Tehran, but cautioned that he may have to act first as reports of the death toll in Iran mount and the government continues to arrest protesters.

“I think they’re tired of being beat up by the United States,” Trump said. “Iran wants to negotiate.”

He added: “The meeting is being set up, but we may have to act because of what’s happening before the meeting. But a meeting is being set up. Iran called, they want to negotiate.”

Iran through country's parliamentary speaker warned Sunday that the U.S. military and Israel would be “legitimate targets” if America uses force to protect demonstrators.

More than 10,600 people also have been detained over the two weeks of protests, said the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, which has been accurate in previous unrest in recent years and gave the death toll. It relies on supporters in Iran crosschecking information. It said 496 of the dead were protesters and 48 were with security forces.

With the internet down in Iran and phone lines cut off, gauging the demonstrations from abroad has grown more difficult. The Associated Press has been unable to independently assess the toll. Iran’s government has not offered overall casualty figures.

Those abroad fear the information blackout is emboldening hard-liners within Iran’s security services to launch a bloody crackdown. Protesters flooded the streets in the country’s capital and its second-largest city on Saturday night into Sunday morning. Online videos purported to show more demonstrations Sunday night into Monday, with a Tehran official acknowledging them in state media.

In Tehran, a witness told the AP that the streets of the capital empty at the sunset call to prayers each night. By the Isha, or nighttime prayer, the streets are deserted.

Part of that stems from the fear of getting caught in the crackdown. Police sent the public a text message that warned: “Given the presence of terrorist groups and armed individuals in some gatherings last night and their plans to cause death, and the firm decision to not tolerate any appeasement and to deal decisively with the rioters, families are strongly advised to take care of their youth and teenagers.”

Another text, which claimed to come from the intelligence arm of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, also directly warned people not to take part in demonstrations.

“Dear parents, in view of the enemy’s plan to increase the level of naked violence and the decision to kill people, ... refrain from being on the streets and gathering in places involved in violence, and inform your children about the consequences of cooperating with terrorist mercenaries, which is an example of treason against the country,” the text warned.

The witness spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity due to the ongoing crackdown.

The demonstrations began Dec. 28 over the collapse of the Iranian rial currency, which trades at over 1.4 million to $1, as the country’s economy is squeezed by international sanctions in part levied over its nuclear program. The protests intensified and grew into calls directly challenging Iran’s theocracy.

Nikhinson reported from aboard Air Force One.

In this frame grab from video obtained by the AP outside Iran, a masked demonstrator holds a picture of Iran's Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi during a protest in Tehran, Iran, Friday, January. 9, 2026. (UGC via AP)

In this frame grab from footage circulating on social media from Iran shows protesters taking to the streets despite an intensifying crackdown as the Islamic Republic remains cut off from the rest of the world in Tehran, Iran, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026.(UGC via AP)

In this frame grab from footage circulating on social media from Iran showed protesters once again taking to the streets of Tehran despite an intensifying crackdown as the Islamic Republic remains cut off from the rest of the world in Tehran, Iran, Saturday Jan. 10, 2026. (UGC via AP)