Arena victim Saffie, eight, ‘could have been saved’
THE youngest victim of the Manchester Arena bomb lived for an hour and could have survived if she had been given better first aid, a report reveals.
Eight-year-old Saffie Roussos – one of 22 people who died in the terror attack at an Ariana Grande concert – was just four metres from the blast and her family thought she had died instantly.
But a report – using witness statements, CCTV and emergency workers’ body-cameras – shows she was knocked unconscious by the blast.
Seconds later, with serious leg injuries, she lifted her head and tried to push herself up with her arms.
Saffie asked for her mum as people helped and gave her water. She was the first person carried out, on a makeshift stretcher using an advertising hoarding and railings.
There was no ambulance, and one had to be flagged down.
Saffie asked a paramedic, ‘Am I going to die?’ The vehicle reportedly did not have all the equipment needed on board so no tourniquet or splint was applied there or in A&E, and she died from loss of blood. The report was commissioned by lawyers for Saffie’s parents Lisa – who survived the attack – and Andrew. They say they had drawn comfort from thinking that she had not suffered. But her father said yesterday: ‘How do we carry on living with this information?’ A public inquiry into the 2017 bombing resumed yesterday and heard of an ‘absence’ of command and ‘significant concerns about co-operation and coordination’ between services. Transport police and the ambulance service declared a major incident within half an hour, triggering more resources. Manchester police took two more hours. Police fears of a gunman meant firefighters were kept away for two hours after the suicide attack by Salman Abedi, 22. The inquiry continues.