Concertgoer: ‘People were screaming to get out’
The seconds after the explosion seemed like minutes to 20-year-old William World, who traveled to Manchester from nearby Wakefield, England, for the Ariana Grande concert Monday night only to have the night shattered by a suicide bomber’s attack.
World commended the staff of the Manchester Arena and the first responders, but he said it was “every man for himself” during the intense post-concert moments after the deadly blast. Here is his story as told to the Herald’s Brian Dowling:
“I was seated on the second tier, walking down the steps, and a loud bang went off seconds after the concert. People started running and screaming. The other half of people around were in a shock and paused for what seemed like minutes, but was seconds.
People were screaming to get out, and pushed down the steps, it was like every man for himself, children screaming, families getting split up — to me it didn’t seem real.
Staff had doors open and were telling people to leave, but they weren’t acting as I thought they would be. They were calm, and it didn’t phase them.
Everyone was confused after to what happened, like if it was a bomb or not. I can say that bag checks were pretty much not existent, and they just said, ‘Open your bag’ and took a quick look, no pat-down. I believe the bomb went off near the exit into the train station, opposite where I was located.
After the concert people were in a big confusion. Me and my sister who were at the concert parked further down from the arena. We went to the car and left before everything was locked off. On our motorways, there were a ton of ambulances and police cars, around 15 heading past us, but we left pretty briskly.
I do commend the staff that helped and did everything they possibly could and, obviously, all the emergency services.”