According to authorities, the bomb used in the Liverpool Remembrance Sunday attack was a handmade explosive with ball bearings attached, and it could have caused "severe harm or death."

Emad Al Swealmeen, 32, was killed when the cab he was riding in exploded just before 11 a.m. on Sunday outside the Liverpool Women's Hospital.

"Although there is significant scientific work to be done on the device to understand what built it up, we have learned a great deal over the past five days," Assistant Chief Constable Russ Jackson, head of Counter Terrorism Police North West, said in a Friday update.

“It was made using homemade explosive and had ball bearings attached to it which would have acted as shrapnel."

“Had it detonated in different circumstances we believe it would have caused significant injury or death.

“We still do not know how or why the device exploded when it did, but we are not discounting it being completely unintentional, and it is a possibility that the movement of the vehicle or its stopping caused the ignition.

“We are spending considerable time seeking to understand the way the purchases for the ingredients to make the device were made.

“This is complicated because purchases have spanned many months and Al Swealmeen has used many aliases.

“We are confident however that in time we will get a full picture of what purchases were made and how, and if anyone else was involved or knew what Al Swealmeen was up to.”

He said there was no link between the incident and the Manchester Arena bombing in 2017, which he said involved a different type of device.