Youth’s ‘terrifying escape’ from UK concert bomber

CHILDREN as young as four searching for their parents‚ terrified people jumping from an almost 2m ledge to escape and bloodied bodies.

These are the images 19-year-old Manchester student Kai Brown will never be able to erase from his memory in the aftermath of Monday night’s terror attack at a concert in the British city that killed at least 22 people.

Brown and his friends were leaving the Ariana Grande concert in Manchester when he heard a “massive bang”.

“Everyone was just looking at each other confused at what just happened then people started running past us and back into the arena covered in blood and screaming ‘bomb’,” he said.

“Everyone just started to run to the back exits but people were pushing and pulling each other.

“People were getting trampled on and others were getting pushed into walls. Some people were even jumping from a six-foot [1.8m] ledge down onto the floor to escape‚” he said.

Speaking to Times Media from a Manchester doctor’s room where he was being treated for bruises and a broken toe yesterday‚ an emotional Brown said he was battling to come to terms with just how close he had been to the bomber.

“If I left five minutes earlier I would have been outside when the bomb went off and I could be telling a whole different story today.”

Brown and his friends wanted to get home as fast as possible and with the whole city on lockdown‚ they were fortunate that one of their parents were there to fetch them.

“I know it sounds stupid but I was so scared to even go to the hospital. Many people were just terrified and wanted to leave the city.

“This is something I could never forget. It’s been so stressful and emotionally exhausting.”

The bomber was named by British police as Salman Abedi, 22.

Manchester police chief constable Ian Hopkins said he would not make any further comments about Abedi at this stage.

“Our priority, along with the police counter-terrorism network and our security partners, is to continue to establish whether he was acting alone or working as part of a wider network.”

British Prime Minister Theresa May vowed that “terrorists will not prevail”.

May said the bomber was believed to have acted alone, although Manchester police arrested a 23-year-old man yesterday morning in connection with the attack.

“A single terrorist detonated his improvised explosive device near one of the exits of the venue, deliberately choosing the time and place to cause maximum carnage and to kill and injure indiscriminately,” May said.

Threatening more attacks, the Islamic State group said in a statement on its social media channels: “One of the caliphate’s soldiers placed bombs among the crowds”. — TMGReuters