The parents of three North East teenagers who tragically died in the Manchester Arena bombing have said there was a “fundamental lack of coordination and communication” in the emergency services that led to failings on the night.
South Shields couple, Chloe Rutherford,17, and Liam Curry, 19, and Gateshead teenager Courtney Boyle, 19, were among the 22 people who were murdered in the atrocity on May 22, 2017.
A public inquiry into the circumstances around the attack is ongoing with hearings taking place in Manchester. Today (Thursday, November 3) the Manchester Arena Inquiry published a catalogue of failings and mistakes by the emergency services following the terror attack.
Inquiry chairman, Sir John Saunders, delivered a scathing report on the response of the emergency services.
He said: “Significant aspects of the emergency response on May, 22, 2017 went wrong. This should not have happened."
Failures highlighted in the report included:
– Only three paramedics entered the City Room on the night to treat the dying and injured.
– The initial command of the incident was taken by Greater Manchester Police’s (GMP) force duty officer, Inspector Dale Sexton, who quickly became overwhelmed by the number of tasks in hand.
– Insp Sexton failed to tell other emergency services he had declared Operation Plato – a pre-arranged plan for a suspected marauding terrorist.
– Fire crews took more than two hours to even attend the incident after station manager Andy Berry chose to mobilise resources three miles from the Arena amid fears over safety.
– Evacuation of casualties failed, with 36 people still waiting to be taken from the City Room past midnight.
Lawyers for the parents of Chloe Rutherford, the mother of Liam Curry, the mother of Courtney Boyle, the daughters of Jane Tweddle, 51, the husband of Michelle Kiss, 45, and the father and step-mother of Olivia Campbell-Hardy, 15, all represented by Hogan Lovells, reacted to the findings.
In a statement, they said: “Today we welcome the publication of volume two of the chair’s report in the Manchester Arena Public Inquiry.
“We appreciate the care taken by the chair in assessing and evaluating what went wrong with the emergency response on the night and, importantly, determining why it went wrong.
“It is clear that a fundamental lack of coordination and communication between the police, ambulance and fire services across different levels of seniority significantly contributed to the failings on the night.
“Whilst the mistakes of specific individuals are also highlighted throughout the report, such fundamental errors at an institutional level should not have occurred. This is even more alarming in circumstances where some of these shortcomings were known about before May 22 2017.
“Additionally, we are pleased that the chair has accepted our submission and recommended that the Government establish a statutory duty on venues to provide an appropriate standard of medical and first aid to attendees. This must be considered as a matter of urgency.
"Our specialist safety practice will continue to work with the Inquiry Legal Team to ensure that the monitored recommendations are implemented and we hope these changes will reduce the likelihood of similar attacks in the future.”
Sir John’s first report on security issues at the Arena was issued last June and highlighted a string of “missed opportunities” to identify Abedi as a threat before he walked across the City Room and detonated his shrapnel-laden device.
The third and final report will focus on the radicalisation of Abedi and what the intelligence services and counter-terrorism police knew, and if they could have prevented the attack. It will be published at a later date.
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