Nothing learnt from 7/7, says angry mother
Emergency services failed during Manchester Arena attack just as they did in capital, says victim’s parent
THE mother of a young woman killed in the 7/7 London bombings has said “nothing has changed” in the response of the emergency services to the aftermath of terror attacks.
Speaking after the publication of a damning report into the 2017 Manchester Arena bombing, Sarah Jenkins said the lessons of 7/7 – 12 years earlier – had not been learnt and the families of victims continued to go through agony.
After the 2005 attacks on London’s bus and Tube network, Mrs Jenkins had to wait 11 days for confirmation that Emily, 24, was among the dead.
She told The Sunday Telegraph: “It beggars belief to think that this agony for families of victims is still going on.
“We had so many lessons from 7/7 that should have been learnt, but nothing has changed from the ordeal I went through to what the Manchester families went through.”
The public inquiry into the Manchester atrocity found two victims of the attack, including eight-year-old Saffie-Rose Roussos, eight, may have survived if paramedics had got to them sooner.
In his report, Sir John Saunders said the response of the police, ambulance and fire services was “far below the standard it should have been”.
An “unduly cautious” approach by a senior ambulance officer saw all but three paramedics stopped from rushing to the scene, meaning the wounded and dying were deprived of treatment.
Fire crews took more than two hours to attend after a station manager chose to mobilise resources three miles from the arena amid fears over safety. Twelve years earlier, the inquest into the 7/7 bombings found there had been several key delays in the response of the emergency services, including one of 52 minutes in getting ambulances to Tavistock Square, the scene of a bus attack in which 13 people died.
There were also delays in firefighters being deployed into the Tube tunnels as crews waited for official confirmation that the live electric rail had been turned off. Problems were also caused by police equipment not working underground.
Sir John said authorities failed to learn the lessons of the July 7 bombings, which killed 52 victims, because “no one really thought it could happen to them”.
Mrs Jenkins, 76, said: “I do feel if you join the ambulance service or the police or fire brigade you’ve joined to help people and save lives, not to sit outside the arena or go to the wrong Tube station or not go down a tunnel or drive away from the area, as happened at Manchester and on 7/7.”
In the days after 7/7, Mrs Jenkins and her three other children spent days going from hospital to hospital clutching Emily’s photograph, as well as visiting the route she would have taken in the hope of finding her.
Mrs Jenkins, from Kew, south-west London, has since campaigned for computer technology to be deployed to provide to families desperate for news of loved ones after a terror attack. “It’s clear nothing has been done,” she said. “Hospitals don’t want grieving families getting in the way, but we felt we had no choice as we were being told nothing. It was just wrong that we should have had to do that or that the Manchester families had to do that.”
Emily’s family also spent hours phoning family helplines only to be asked the same questions, such as whether Emily had spoken to her friends or whether she might have run away.
“You always had to start from scratch,” said Mrs Jenkins, who wants a red light or triage system for helplines to deal with people who had rung before and were seeking an update.
Mrs Jenkins lays much of the blame at the feet of politicians for failing to act over the failings laid bare by 7/7, Manchester Arena and other terror attacks.
She said of the Manchester report: “It’s brought back so many horrendous memories. Emily was so young and so pretty. She was such fun.”
And despite campaigning for so long on the issue, Mrs Jenkins – whose daughter wanted to become a midwife – has felt unable to meet any of the families of the Manchester victims.
She said: “I don’t want to talk to them because I know I can’t give them any words of comfort.
“I can’t say their grief will get better, because it won’t.”
‘If you join the emergency services it’s to help people, not to sit outside the arena or drive away’