Andy Burnham says the emergency services had no 'properly organised response' to Arena attack

• Andy Burnham reacting to the Manchester Arena inquiry report into the emergency response

The Mayor of Greater Manchester has said the emergency services were 'let down by the lack of a properly organised response' during the Manchester Arena attack.

Andy Burnham has been reacting to the inquiry into the terrorist attack which killed 22 people and injured hundreds more in May 2017.

The report found that “inadequacies” in the emergency response meant the deaths of at least one of the 22 victims could even have been prevented.

Within his statement, Mr Burbham said: “Many people in all emergency services did do their jobs properly. But they were let down by the lack of a properly organised response.

“As the inquiry report makes clear, the reason people were left in this unacceptable position was the result of poor advance planning, and a failure to follow established guidance for an incident of this nature.

"That led to a poorly co-ordinated and confused response operation on the night. There is no justification nor excuse for this.

“I can only speak for the services for which I am responsible – Greater Manchester Police and Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service – and in my view they failed so badly because they had poor leadership, a poor internal culture and an inability to collaborate properly and apply JESIP principles as the public should have been entitled to expect."

He did, however, then go on to say both the police and fire service today is "a very different entity to what it was in 2017".

Mr Burnham also went on to say he had "asked for an evaluation from both Chiefs on whether we should co-locate police and fire in a joint control room in Greater Manchester."

He concluded by saying there had already been "major changes" with "more to come".