An island’s dread as families hunt for loved ones
A SCOTS teenager caught up in the Manchester bombing was last night battling for survival in intensive care after being ‘badly burned’ – but her friend was still missing.
The parents of Laura MacIntyre and Eilidh Macleod yesterday made the long trip from the Hebridean island of Barra in the hope that their girls would be found safe and well following the atrocity.
They spent yesterday desperately searching hospitals and hotels in Manchester for their daughters.
The trip to the city and tickets to the concert had been a birthday present for Eilidh, 14, who was last night still unaccounted for.
Fifteen-year-old Laura’s family said that she had been located late yesterday afternoon at the intensive care unit of a Manchester hospital. It is understood the teenager was ‘badly burned’ in the terrorist attack.
Speaking from her home in Borve, Barra, Laura’s grandmother, Cecilia MacFadyen, said: ‘I’ve just heard – she’s in intensive care in Manchester. Her mum and dad are going straight there but they don’t know how bad she is just yet.
‘I’m absolutely distraught at the moment. I haven’t slept since I saw the news. We’re all hoping and praying she’s going to be alright.’
Laura’s mother, Nan, is understood to have flown to Manchester yesterday morning after hearing the news of the attack.
Her father Michael was later able to join her after a passenger on the fully-booked flight from Barra to Glasgow gave up his seat to allow him to travel.
Mr MacIntyre tweeted yesterday: ‘Please... please retweet. Looking for my daughter and her friend. Laura Macintyre and Eilidh Macleod #manchesterattack’
An appeal by Eilidh’s aunt Margaret MacNeill was also been shared tens of thousands of times on Facebook.
Angus MacNeil, Nationalist candidate for the Western Isles lives on Barra and is a family friend of the MacIntyres. He said: ‘It is difficult to comprehend that two girls from Barra were in Manchester and were caught up in this – two girls who are a credit to their families and their community. How do I tell my daughter? Laura is her best friend.’
He said Marion, Eilidh’s mother, had accompanied the girls to Manchester for the concert. He added: ‘She got a text at the end of the concert saying it was the last song. She went to look for the girls but people were running out of the place in a panic.
‘Since that text message at the end of the concert, she has heard nothing. Laura is alive in hospital and is in a serious condition. We are obviously still extremely worried about Eilidh. We have no news at the moment.’
Marion’s husband Roddy, a merchant seaman, also flew out of Barra to travel to Manchester yesterday morning. Last night a relative of Eilidh’s in Glasgow said the family had no update on the teenager’s whereabouts.
The Scottish Government said six other people were treated in hospitals in Scotland, none with life-threatening injuries. Two remained in hospital last night. However, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said the authorities cannot be sure there are no other Scots affected.
Other desperate families were last night still searching for loved ones missing since the blast.
Olivia Campbell, 15, who has twice entered TV’s Britain’s Got Talent, had gone to the show with her friend Adam Lawler, 15, who was seriously injured. Her father, grandparents and others searched city hospitals as her mother Charlotte, 36, waited anxiously for news at home in Bury.
The teenager sent her mother a text at 8.30pm saying she had seen the support acts and was waiting for the US singer to go on stage and was ‘really enjoying herself’.
Miss Campbell said: ‘That’s the last I heard from her. She had her phone with her but it’s dead. We’ve no idea what has happened. I’ve given her description to the police and I’m just waiting for news.
‘I’m still hopeful, I’ve got to be hopeful, I can’t fear the worst.’
The families of Liam Curry, 19, and his girlfriend Chloe Rutherford, 17, drove through the night after news of the explosion broke.
Liam, a sports science student at Northumbria University, whose father died in March after a long illness, had taken Chloe for a night away as a romantic treat.
But neither have been seen after apparently leaving before the final song of the night.
Chloe’s father Mark Rutherford, 45, of South Shields, said: ‘We don’t know anything. We are just waiting for news. I drove through the night to get here. My wife phoned me and said, ‘‘something’s happened in Manchester’’.’
Bernard Wills, 36, one of Liam’s relatives, said the couple had a ‘bright future’ together. ‘They are very much in love,’ he added.
Insurance assessor Kelly Brewster, 32, from Sheffield, had travelled to the concert with her sister Claire, and Claire’s daughter Hollie Booth, 11.
Miss Brewster’s uncle Paul Dryhurst, 59, a lorry driver also from Sheffield, said last night that she had not been traced, while the other two were still being treated in hospital. Mr Dryhurst said: ‘Kelly has shielded Hollie and Claire from the damage.
‘The three were walking out in single file, with Claire in front, Hollie behind her, and Kelly behind her. When the bomb has gone off the impact has broken Claire’s jaw and broken Hollie’s legs.
‘After the impact Claire had gone to Hollie but when she looked up she couldn’t find Kelly. They lost her in all the commotion.’
The family of missing Martyn Hett, 29, said they feared the ‘worst could have happened’ just two days before he was about to embark on a trip of a lifetime.
He was due to fly to America for a two-month holiday and had spent the last few days saying goodbye to friends. Stepmother Kathryn Hett, 59, said his phone is off, leaving his family ‘devastated’ at the thought of what could have happened to the PR worker. Kathryn, who has been married to Martyn’s father Paul for 25 years, said: ‘I feel absolutely devastated. It’s so awful.’
Wendy Fawell, a 50-year-old school worker, disappeared in the chaos while waiting for her 15-yearold daughter Charlotte. The Elvis Presley fan from Otley, West Yorkshire, was waiting with a friend, Caroline, who suffered shrapnel wounds and was hospitalised. Her step-daughter Emma Sykes said: ‘Right now we are just hoping that she is disorientated, or something, and that she is somewhere safe.’
A young woman has put out an appeal for the safe return of her parents, Angelika and Marcin Klis, who both attended the concert.
Daughter Alex Klis, a student at the University of York, wrote: ‘Any-
‘Laura is alive in hospital and in a serious condition’
one who is in any safe place or hospital in Manchester, if anyone comes across my parents please please let me know as they’ve been missing ever since the attack, this is a picture taken tonight so this is exactly what they were wearing.’
Neither Courtney Boyle, 19, nor her mother’s partner Philip Tron, 32, have been seen since they went to pick up her little sister Nicole, who escaped unharmed. Miss Boyle, a criminology student at Leeds Beckett University, spent the day with Mr Tron and other relatives in Manchester before the concert.
Her mother Deborah Hutchinson appealed for the safe return of the pair, of Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, posting on Facebook: ‘Please share and help find them, I need them home safe.’
The parents of promising student Nell Jones, 14, travelled from their farm near Knutsford, Cheshire. Friends said she was with a group of friends from Holmes Chapel Comprehensive School, at least one of whom suffered leg injuries.
Family friend Gina Robinson said: ‘Nell is not in hospital, her best friend who she went to the concert with, is.
‘She’s still not been in touch. Her parents and other family members are on the ground searching Manchester high and low for her.
Her cousin Hollie Webb also issued a desperate appeal to find the youngster. Sharing a photo online, she said: ‘If anyone knows of anywhere we can try as we are heading to Manchester now x.’
Also among the missing were two mothers who were collecting their children from the concert when the bomb went off.
Alison Howe, 45, and Lisa Lees, 43, from Royton, Oldham, had been waiting in the foyer.
Darcie Howe and India Lees, the 15-year-old daughters they were picking up, are believed to be safe, according to messages posted on social media.
Mrs Howe’s daughter Sasha posted a heartbreaking message on Facebook yesterday saying: ‘Still no news. Pls contact if anyone knows anything.’