Man who challenged Manchester Arena bomber felt ‘fobbed off ’ when he alerted security steward minutes before blast
A worried member of the public asked Manchester Arena suicide bomber Sal man Ab edi, “What have you go t in your rucksack?” but was “fobbed off ” after raising concerns with security, the public inquiry into the terror attack heard.
Christopher Wild spoke to the 22- year-old, dressed in black and with a “massive” rucksack, as his appearance and presence outside the concert appeared” strange” and ”dodgy” to Mr Wild and his partner Julie Whitley. The couple, believed to be from Yorkshire, were waiting in the City Room, the foyer of the arena, to pick up Ms Whitley's daughter, 14, and her daughter's friend after an Ariana Grande concert.
They came across Abedi, hiding at the back of the City Room, shortly before he detonated his home-made rucksack bomb, at 10.30pm on May 22, 2017, killing 22 bystanders and injuring hundreds more.
Mr Wild told the hearing in Manchester: “I just thought it was strange. It' s a kids’ concert. It just all seemed very strange to me why he would be sat there. He was keeping out of view and that's another reason why I thought it was strange. ”
Paul Greaney QC, counsel to the inquiry, asked the witness: “What danger was it? What did you think he might do?”
Mr Wild said: “Let a bomb off.” He continued: “I decided to have a word with him.
"Because Julie was war y of him and so was I. I just wanted to know why he was there.
“I asked him what he was doing there, did he know how bad it looked, him sitting there out of sight of everybody? I felt a bit bad about challenging him. He didn't reply, he just looked up at me.
Mr Wild said Abedi told him he was “waiting for someone” and asked him a couple of times what the time was.
“He seemed on edge, nervous ,” Mr Wild added.
Shortly after, at about 10.14pm, around 16 minutes before Abe did et on at ed his rucksack bomb, Mr Wild approached Mohammed Agha, a Showsec steward, the security contractors for the arena.
He said he told him he was “very concerned” about the man, hiding with a large rucksack. “He said he already knew about him and that was it really,” Mr Wild said, agreeing he felt “fobbed off ”.