Manchester Arena Inquiry: Ambulance service to give evidence this week

The Manchester Arena Inquiry resumes this week with paramedics who were on duty the night of the attack expected to give evidence.

The emergency response to the bombing has been under scrutiny, with the inquiry hearing that communications between Greater Manchester Police and the fire service broke down in the immediate aftermath of the attack.

Only three paramedics made it into the City Rooms of the arena, where Salman Abedi detonated his suicide bomb, with many victims being carried out of the arena on crash barriers.

22 people were killed in the attack, with hundreds more being injured.

The inquiry has heard that two of the victims, Saffies Roussos and John Atkinson, could have been saved.

Last week the inquiry heard that Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue service did not turn up for more than two hours after the explosion.

The Fire Brigades Union described its officers as being ‘starved of information’ and say that’s what led to such a chaotic response.

The inquiry also heard from the first British Transport Police Officer in the City Rooms, Sergeant Matthew Martin, who told the hearing he had to use heavy crash barriers to get severely injured victims of the bombing to somewhere they could receive medical attention.

He spent 40 minutes carrying the casualties, during which time only one paramedic entered the City Room where the bomb had gone off.

Victims of the attack were carried out on crash barriers. Credit: PA

The police officer described his "frustration" because "it felt like a while" before any paramedics were in the City Room foyer and he was struggling to cope.

At 10.50pm, 19 minutes after the explosion, he left to get more equipment and found a paramedic with three police officers on the concourse of Victoria Station below the arena.

"I recall coming down the stairs from the overbridge on to the main concourse and then, relatively kind of directly in front of me, was a paramedic. I recall asking him where the ambulance or where the paramedics were?" he said.

 "The response I recall was something along the lines of, 'They’re en route,' or, 'They’re on their way.'

"I don’t know the time frame, but it felt like a while before any paramedics were actually within the City Room."

The inquiry also heard that "worse mistakes" could be made if there was another terrorist attack, according to the Fire Brigades Union.

Andy Dark, assistant secretary of the Fire Brigades Union, said that he was concerned about fire services that did not have a "developed capability" to respond to a terrorist attack.