Survivors and NHS staff relive I FOUND PART OF BOMB IN MY SHOE
We rushed to the carnage Mum rallies help for traumatised children
AN off-duty ambulance boss has told how he rushed to save lives after learning of the explosion from his daughter on social media.
North West Ambulance Service’s deputy director of operations Steve Hynes commanded the first response at the scene – and said it was the toughest ordeal he has faced in a career of more than three decades.
He praised the hundreds of other off-duty doctors and paramedics who dropped everything to help those in desperate need.
“I was reading a book in bed when my daughter came in and said, ‘Have you seen what’s on social media, dad?’,” recalled Steve.
Tears
He was at Manchester Arena half an hour after the bomb exploded and worked there with his team of paramedics until the early hours, when all the victims had been discharged or transferred to hospital.
He said that with so many casualties, deciding who to treat first was paramount.
“Nothing on this scale had been experienced before,” said Steve. “We had 21 people in a life-threatening condition and we also had to ensure the walking wounded got checked out – they might think they’ve got a small cut but it could be a shrapnel injury.” Rescuers are being offered counselling. “That night staff were in tears about what’s happened,” said Steve. “The night after, when they’ve come in for their next shift, they’ve still been visibly upset.
“We’ve got emotions, we’ve got family. We flip a switch when we’re in the mode to help people. When everyone’s running away, we run forward. It’s what we’re trained to do.” WITNESSES of the horror at Manchester Arena are being offered free counselling thanks to a hypnotherapist mum. Karen Riley, 43, set up a Facebook group – Manchester Concert Attack Therapists – so professionals could provide their services to children and parents affected. She said: “The response has been amazing from people offering help. “I’ve seen three people in my clinic, they were in the arena and are traumatised. “They’ve seen people carried out covered in blood.” Karen, left, who has sons aged 13 and nine and lives in Huddersfield, West Yorks, said many witnesses would feel guilt because they know others had died. A MUM who miraculously survived the Manchester Arena massacre found a bit of bomb in her boot.
Katherine Brierley and daughter Ilana, 11, were just feet from evil Salman Abedi as he detonated his r ucksack of explosives.
Had it gone off moments later the pair would have almost certainly been killed by the massive blast that claimed 22 lives and injured 116.
Ilana’s leg was bruised and Katherine, 46, had a cut on her arm but was caked in blood when they fled Monday’s scene of carnage.
But when they reached their home in Greater Manchester, NHS worker Katherine made a grim discovery.
A small piece of broken plastic with brightly coloured blue and black stitching was hanging from a seam in the mum of three’s shoe.
She sent an image of it to her brother – an Army veteran with 36 years of service in Afghanistan and the Falklands – who immediately identified it as a section of Abedi’s deadly device. Now detectives are checking it for fingerprints and clues which may identify the bomb maker who helped assemble the suicide vest.
She said: “I got home and I was taking my boots off on the landing and this piece of plastic fell out.
Splatter
“I knew it had to be something to do with the bomb so I showed it to my brother who’s ex-Army.
“He said: ‘It looked like it was off the bomber’s vest, it’s definitely something to do with the bomb. Take it to the police immediately’. He knows what he’s talking about.”
Detectives are desperate to find who was in the terror cell behind the horrific attack. Security chiefs believe the bomb was built by other Islamic State fanatics in a Manchester city centre flat, available for rent via the internet for £75 a night. They fear another bomb attack is imminent.
Katherine said: “The stitching is the same colour as the bag Abedi used. We just hope they can use it as part of their investigation.
“We even took the clothes we were wearing so they could examine the blood splatter.
“We feel lucky to be alive – if he had set that explosion off five minutes later there would have been a lot more carnage.
“At that point there weren’t that many people in that area.” Katherine