Help pleas after Arena bombing

INQUIRY TOLD OF LONG WAIT FOR HELP TO ARRIVE AT VENUE’S FOYER

POLICE officers were captured on their body-cameras making desperate pleas for paramedics to be summoned to tend to the wounded in the aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing, the inquiry has heard.

Only one paramedic was in the foyer where people lay dead and dying for the first 40 minutes after Salman Abedi had detonated a huge bomb in his backpack, a public inquiry into the atrocity was told yesterday.

One of the casualties, John Atkinson, was taken away on a makeshift stretcher, an advertising hoarding, from which he fell when it broke, and he was only lifted onto an ambulance trolley an hour and 15 minutes after the blast to begin heart-massage, it was said. He died shortly after midnight.

Shocking details of his treatment - the inquiry heard there was a shortage of tourniquets and no proper stretchers that night

- were outlined as the public inquiry resumed yesterday.

Only four ‘inexperienced’ police officers were on duty that night while an officer with 30 years of experience, who would normally have stationed himself on the mezzanine level, was conducting another enquiry, it was said.

Lawyers representing the families said they had grave concerns that the security services could have done more to prevent the May 2017 attack in which Abedi and 22 others died when he detonated a huge bomb in his rucksack. Abedi first came to the attention of the security services in 2010 and was designated a ‘subject of interest’ by MI5 on March 18, 2014, only for the file on him to be closed on July 21, 2014, the inquiry was told.

Neither he nor any member of his family, was referred to ‘Prevent’, the government initiative designed to stop radicalisation and terror attacks. The public inquiry into the bombing heard the first of a series of opening statements by ‘ core participants’. Lawyers representing families of the victims took it in turn to outline what they hoped to learn and achieve from the inquiry. John Cooper QC, who represents eleven families, detailed a timeline to death of John Atkinson, who he said could be seen on Arena CCTV crawling along the floor on his hands and knees as the smoke from

Were there failures in the treatment and care of John that meant he could have lived? John Cooper QC

the explosion cleared from the foyer.

The detonation happened at 10.31pm but Mr Atkinson, from Radcliffe, was only transferred to an ambulance trolley at 11.46pm and heartmassage commenced one minute later, the inquiry was told.

Before that, he had been placed on a makeshift stretcher that broke under his weight and he fell from knee height onto some railings, it was said.

“Was he tended to quickly enough?... Could he have survived? Were there failures in the treatment and care of John that meant he could have lived? Could John have been saved?” asked Mr Cooper.

The inquiry heard how a complete stranger, Roger Blake, tended to him until expert help arrived, giving him water and applying bandages.

“It felt like ages before anyone came to help,” Mr Blake. The seriously injured casualty, the inquiry heard, said: “I’m going to die aren’t I?” When a paramedic arrived, he is said to have replied: “Not on my watch.”

But the casualty died shortly after midnight. One of the key issues of the inquiry is to establish whether Mr Atkinson could have survived with more prompt help.

The Arena had no proper stretchers and there was a shortage of tourniquets, the inquiry was told. Mr Cooper questioned how those tasked with ensuring the safety that night justified the ‘hopeless provision’.

Firefighters only arrived at the scene two hours after the blast despite being alerted within minutes, it was said.

Mr Cooper questioned how prepared the owners of the venue, SMG, or the security firm Showsec, were ‘if at all’.

The QC questioned whether there had been an ‘organisational breakdown’ and he quoted the concerns of police officers which had been captured on their body-cams.

“We need ambulances, mate, massively,” said one. “We need paramedics like f***ing yesterday,” said another.

“I know it’s a daft question but are the ambulances coming?” asked another.

The inquiry heard details of Salman Abedi’s links to convicted terrorist Abdalraouf Abdallah who he visited in prison in the months before the attack. The pair were said to have exchanged messages which referenced martyrs, martyrdom, suicide and maidens of paradise.

His brother Ismail Abedi’s Facebook account was viewed and assessed in July 2015 and found to have images of Ismail holding a grenade launcher while perched on an anti-aircraft gun. Another picture showed him wearing camouflage clothing and holding a machine gun with an IS logo imprinted on the image, it was said.

Ismail Abedi was ‘port-stopped on September 3, 2015, and his phone, which was also used by Salman’s younger brother Hashem, was seized, the inquiry was told. The device contained ISIS recruitment videos and literature, it was said.

The QC asked: “What exactly were the security services doing when all this was happening?”

Pete Wetherby QC, who represents another tranche of families, described the ‘grave misgivings’ about what he termed the ‘obsessive secrecy of the security service’s approach to evidence’.

The QC said there had been ‘an absence of command and control’ and an ‘abject failure’ of ‘interoperability’ of the main emergency services.

The QC also said that Abedi being a ‘subject of interest’ in 2014 should have prompted a ‘closer look’ when he visited Abdallah in prison in 2015.

He said a ‘cursory’ investigation would have revealed information that ‘would have started to sketch a picture and should have prompted or triggered a further look, further scrutiny and practical measures.’ Austin Welch, representing another group of families, asked whether deaths ‘could and should have been avoided’.

He went on: “How much was caused by oversight, how much by mistake and how much by putting profit before safety?”

He said there were four police officers on duty that night and even though they were stationed ‘just a few metres away’ they did not challenge Abedi.

Mr Welch asked: “What were the officers doing that day and why did they not notice or challenge Salman Abedi?”

Proceeding.

How much was caused by oversight, how much by mistake and how much by putting profit before safety? Austin Welch