Shame of the 999 chiefs, by father of arena bomb victim
THE father of the youngest victim of the Manchester Arena bombing yesterday attacked the ‘shameful and inadequate’ response to the blast by emergency services.
Andrew Roussos told the public inquiry into the terrorist blast that ‘everyone was let down and the people that excuse it should feel shame’.
The inquiry was told his daughter SaffieRose, eight, who suffered severe leg injuries, had asked ‘Am I going to die?’ while being taken to hospital. Mr Roussos said the actions of the security services ‘should go down in history as one of the worst failures from start to finish’.
He said Saffie had been on ‘cloud nine’ to be attending the 2017 Ariana Grande concert on a ‘girlie night’ with her mother and sister after getting tickets as a Christmas present. She was five yards away when suicide bomber Salman Abedi detonated his device as the family, from Leyland, Lancashire, walked across the foyer.
Abedi killed 22 people and injured 1,000 others. The inquiry heard that Saffie arrived at hospital 52 minutes after the explosion. She had been carried out on a bloodied advertising board, serving as a stretcher, and a police officer flagged down an ambulance. Sophie Cartwright QC, for the inquiry, said some experts believed she may have survived if taken to hospital faster, but there was a ‘difference of opinion’.
Saffie was pronounced dead one hour and nine minutes after the explosion. Describing evidence to the inquiry – including lack of stretchers and equipment, emergency crews not allowed on to the scene and intelligence failures – Mr Roussos said: ‘I have never heard so many excuses and so much justification that the response on May 22 was somewhat acceptable.
‘The response on that night was shameful and inadequate... What Saffie went through I will never forgive. That poor little girl hung in
‘A disgrace to this country’
there for someone to come and help her. What she received was a bloody advertisement board and untrained people doing the best they could.’
Mr Roussos called 999 chiefs’ response that lessons would be learned a ‘disgrace to everyone involved and to this country, to the people helping and to the people dying’.
The inquiry was told it was not until 4am that he tracked down his critically-injured wife, who survived. He found out about Saffie the next day.
Mrs Roussos told the inquiry: ‘I want to thank those that tried to help Saffie. I also want to say to the emergency services and MI5, this isn’t about protecting your job, reputation or uniform. Until you admit the failings, how can there be positive change?’
The hearing continues.