Manchester Arena attack hero dies in road crash

  • Watch Sir John Saunders, chairman of the Manchester Arena Public Inquiry, pay tribute to Darron Coster.

An ex-military policeman hailed a hero for helping victims of the Manchester Arena terror attack has died following a road collision.

Darron Coster used his training from 22 years in the Royal Military Police (RMP) to assist casualties in the City Room foyer where the bomb was detonated at the end of an Ariana Grande concert in May 2017.

Darron Coster was hailed a hero for his actions on the night of the Arena attack.

On Monday, Sir John Saunders, the chairman of the public inquiry into the attack, said they had received the "very sad news" that Mr Coster died last week.

Mr Coster, who retired from the RMP in 2008, told the inquiry earlier this year he had served tours of Northern Ireland, so was familiar with the aftermath of bomb explosions and had basic first aid training.

He had gone to pick up his son and his son's friends after the concert that night.

Mr Coster, form Accrington in Lancashire, made several laps of the room in assisting people.

He used a man's belt and a woman's handbag strap as tourniquets to stem the bleeding of a couple who had suffered leg injuries, and then helped a young man with serious facial and torso injuries.

The 22 people who lost their life in the Manchester Arena attack.

Sir John added: "He applied improvised tourniquets to some of the more seriously injured.

"He encouraged other uninjured people who didn't have his medical skill to sit with the injured, talk to them and give to them what assistance they could.

"He remained in the City Room doing what he could in that vital first half-hour to a hour and then went to find his son."

Mr Coster leaves a wife Alison and a son Charlie.