In their own haunting words, pop fans relive night of fear and carnage
‘Dead bodies everywhere’
AMID the euphoria, some concert-goers thought it was balloons popping.
Ariana Grande’s 90-minute show had reached its climax with thousands of pink balloons floating from the ceiling of the Manchester Arena on to 21,000 happy young fans, before an encore performance of her latest single, Dangerous Woman.
Then the 23-year-old American pop star signed off with ‘Bye bye, Manchester!’ and skipped from the stage.
The lights came on and thousands of delirious teenagers, many wearing Miss Grande’s trademark long novelty ears, began leaving. It was shortly after 10.30pm.
As fans got out of their seats, a sickening boom reverberated around the stadium, followed by silence – and then a chilling crescendo of teenage screams. Panic swept the hall, with children as young as six and their terrified parents caught up in a confused stampede.
Down in the venue’s foyer, where acrid smoke was clearing, the scene was all too hideously clear.
Moments earlier, 22-year-old Salman Abedi, born in Manchester, had apparently walked in unchecked and detonated a bomb packed with nails and bolts.
Vicki McFarlane, 33, who had travelled to the show with daughter Kacey-Jai from Ellon, Aberdeenshire, said she has been interviewed by terrorism officers after seeing a man ‘acting suspiciously’ in the foyer at Manchester Arena.
She said: ‘I’m pretty sure we saw the guy. It’s tormenting me now. Because when we left the concert early to go to the toilet and get back to the hotel ahead of the crowds, there was hardly anyone in the foyer at that time. But there was a man hanging around. I can’t say much more, but I’ve reported it to the terrorism police.’
Speaking yesterday, she told how they ‘just heard this huge bang’ as they returned to the foyer. ‘Then people started running. We didn’t know where we were going, but we just ran.
‘Others followed us and lots of people just gathered in the foyer of the hotel. Some of them said they had seen injured people, lots of blood, young children.’
Fellow concert-goers Terri Robertson, a healthcare assistant, and her partner Kerry Stewart told how they were surrounded by young children desperately trying to get hold of their parents in the wake of the explosion.
Mrs Robertson, from Aberdeen, told the BBC: ‘There were just heaps of people crying and young girl phoning their mums.’
Chris Parker, 33, said: ‘There were nuts and bolts flying everywhere, and also human flesh. It was like a war zone. I saw a little girl... she had no legs. I wrapped her in one of the merchandise T-shirts and I said, “Where is your mum and daddy?” She said, “My dad is at work, my mum is up there”.’
Mr Parker cradled a woman he believes was the girl’s mother. ‘She passed away in my arms. She said she had been with her family. I haven’t stopped crying.’
Phil Dick, 54, from Bradford, was waiting in the foyer to pick up his daughter and granddaughter when he was blown over by the blast. He said: ‘There was an eerie silence. Then it was absolute carnage, people screaming, injured people, bodies, unfortunately bits of bodies, lying around everywhere.
‘My first instinct was “Where are the kids, where are the kids!” Then we saw a young girl. She looked very severely injured, very traumatised. There was blood bubbling out of her mouth and nose – she was choking on it.’
Mr Dick and wife Kim, 54, started doing first aid.
‘Unfortunately, her hair was all singed, a plastic bag had melted into her hair. It was horrible, absolutely horrible,’ he said.
‘This poor young lass, she had shrapnel injuries to her shoulder, face, head, both legs, her arms. She was 14.’
The couple looked after the girl while waiting for paramedics, who were initially held back amid fears of a second bomb.
Company director Mr Dick added: ‘She was so brave, this young girl, she managed to tell me what her home phone number was, so I rang her mum – she was distraught on the end of the phone. I said: “Your daughter’s here, she’s been injured but she’s okay and we’re going to stay with her”.’
Amid the carnage, Mr Dick said he saw the remains of the suicide bomber – cut in half by the blast. ‘It was basically the bottom half… no body,’ he said.
Mother-of-two Emma Johnson believes she saw Abedi detonate his bomb. She was standing 15ft away, and noticed him because of his ‘bright red’ top amid a group of fans ‘all wearing the colours of Ariana – white, black, pink’. She said: ‘For one split second I turned and saw the top. It was bright red – that’s why it stood out – with a grey panel down the front with risen bits all over it. As quick as I saw it, the explosion happened.’
Mrs Johnson wept as she said: ‘Every time I close my eyes, I envisage a young girl crying for her mum, because her head was in a pool of blood and her husband was trying to bring her round.
‘There were dead bodies everywhere and then I saw the torso, the remains of a body, as well. It was horrendous.’
A homeless man, Stephen Jones, 35, who had rushed in to help, found a scene of devastation. He said: ‘There were little girls crying and screaming. We were having to pull nails and bits of glass out of their arms and faces.’
Lisa Kane said her 17-year-old daughter Abby’s insistence on wearing high heels saved their lives. Abby had been walking so slowly, the bomb went off when they were still far enough away.
Back at their hotel, the pair washed off the blood of victims. Miss Kane, of Airdrie, Lanarkshire, said: ‘Abby came out of the shower and sat on the floor crying, saying “There’s something in my hair”. It was a bit of someone’s flesh – someone’s body. It was just awful.’
In the main arena, children and their parents knew something had gone horribly wrong, but not what. Anne Marie McNally, from Prestatyn, north Wales, who was with her daughter Lucy, said: ‘There seemed to be a gust of wind
that came through and a bit of a smog with a burning smell.
‘My daughter went into a mad panic, as did a lot of the young girls – a lot of the audience were young girls on their own. I was stood with four other young girls, they were hysterical. I didn’t know them but I tried to calm them.’
In the pandemonium, people were knocking over small children to get out, she said. Members of the singer’s security went up on stage and asked everyone to stay put and be calm – yet announcements on the PA were telling people: ‘Evacuate! Evacuate!’
Ryan Morrison, 19, said people ‘were injured by being trampled as they tried to get out’.
Stephanie Hill, who was there with her daughter Kennedy, 19, said: ‘It was chaos. There were young girls, maybe 13, 14, in pairs, desperate, on their phones. One was hysterical.’
Her daughter added: ‘When it first happened, we looked at each other like “Oh my God, is this something serious or was that just a balloon popping?”
‘We asked the security guard, “Where do we go?” and he said he had no idea. People were falling down the stairs, falling up the stairs, falling over chairs, there were shoes on the floor, phones were dropped, bags were everywhere – people were literally just running for their lives.
‘We found a girl who was absolutely hysterical because she couldn’t find her mum – probably just slightly younger than me – so we dragged her with us. And then, as we came round this corner towards the exit we were going to take, there was a haze of smoke which just smelt like bonfire night – like fireworks and burning.’
Evie Brewster, who had been taken to her first concert by her mother, said: ‘Suddenly everybody started screaming and running for the exit. It was terrifying. There were thousands of people trying to get out at once. They were all screaming and crying. The whole place smelt smoky and burnt.’
Her mother, Jenny, said: ‘We had headed towards the main doors as Ariana was performing the last song and we wanted to beat the crowds, but as we made our way there, a wall of security men blocked it and told us to go the other way. They shouted “Run!”. Hundreds of people were running and screaming. Those men saved our lives.’
Gary Walker, from Leeds, said he was hit by shrapnel in his foot and his wife sustained a stomach wound as they waited for their daughters to come out. He added: ‘I was about three metres from the explosion. I felt a bit of pain in my foot and my leg. My wife said, “I need to lie down”. She had got a stomach wound and possibly a broken leg.’
Nine-year-old Nevie Hemblys, who narrowly escaped death, said she was ‘really scared and shaking’ – but would be brave enough to go to another concert as long as her mother was there.
Andrew Wholey, 45, from Whiston, Merseyside, spent 20 minutes frantically searching for his wife and daughter.
He said: ‘It was the most horrific 20 minutes of my life. It will stay with me for ever… all those torsos on the ground and trails of blood.’
By now, the emergency services had declared a major incident. A column of 60 ambulances snaked its way to the scene. The injured were carried out on makeshift stretchers made from tables. Hospitals prepared for mass casualties. A medic at nearby Wythenshawe Hospital told patients in A&E: ‘Anybody who is not serious, can you please leave and get treatment elsewhere.’
Miss Grande’s mother Joan was among the ‘angels’ who escorted terrified fans to safety. She had been sitting in her seat in the front row when the bomb detonated. Concert-goers said she called as many as ten children to follow her backstage, leading them to safety.
Meanwhile, generous Mancunians offered beds to those affected, taxi drivers gave free lifts, and one woman, Paula Robinson, 48, rounded up dozens of fleeing teenage girls and took them to a hotel, then tweeted out her phone number to worried parents, telling them to meet her there.
For other frantic mothers and fathers, they were soon to be given the devastating news that their children were not coming home.
‘People running for their lives’