Manchester Arena Inquiry: Police chief admits failings in co-ordinating emergency response

A British Transport Police chief superintendent has told the inquiry into the Manchester Arena bombing it is a "matter of regret" that he did not communicate with other emergency services commanders.

Chief Superintendent Allan Gregory was the silver commander for British Transport Police (BTP) following the terrorist attack on May 22 2017.

Mr Gregory, who was based in the control room in Birmingham on the night, accepted he did not speak to silver commanders from the fire service or ambulance service during the incident.

Mr Gregory said another "source of regret" was that he called Superintendent Kyle Gordon who lived in Blackpool and asked him to attend the scene as a bronze commander.

The inquiry heard Mr Gordon arrived at the arena some time after 1am, almost two hours after Mr Gregory called him at 11.12pm to ask him to make his way there.

Mr Gregory said he was not made aware that GMP had declared Operation Plato, a pre-planned response to what they believed was a marauding terrorist firearms attack.

He told the inquiry he would have expected to have been informed.

When asked if he had been adequately trained for the incident, he said:

"In terms of the sheer scale of events, the sheer amount of information coming at you in different order and the sheer tragedy, no."

The inquiry is looking at events before, during and after the suicide bombing by Salman Abedi, 22, which killed 22 people and injured hundreds at the end of an Ariana Grande concert.