Manchester Arena bombing: GMP was not aware of Ariana Grande concert despite terror drill at venue months earlier, inquiry hears

Inquiry hears that British Transport Police should have led response but failed to take command

Greater Manchester Police took part in a mock terror attack in the Manchester Arena just months before the suicide bomb blast in 2017, an inquiry has heard.

Despite aiming to learn lessons from Exercise Sherman, which included fatalities in the City Room where 22 victims lost their lives, the force was “not aware” of the Ariana Grande concert taking place on the night of the attack.

Salman Abedi targetted the event, attended by 14,000 fans, and blew himself up as people flooded out of the arena to meet their friends and family.

The second day of a public inquiry into the bombing was told of planning and communications issues between Greater Manchester Police (GMP) and British Transport Police (BTP).

Paul Greaney QC, counsel to the inquiry, said BTP had “primacy” in policing the area because of its proximity to Victoria Station and the investigation would consider whether that affected preparedness for a terror attack.

He added: “GMP did not know at an organisational level of the Ariana Grande concert and had not made any provision or plan for the concert. On the face of it, that may seem surprising.”

He said that the force had played a prominent role in training exercises, including Exercise Winchester Accord, at the Trafford Centre in May 2016.

Following Isis attacks in Paris the previous November, it included a staged marauding attack by suicide bombers and gunmen.

Then in July 2016, Mr Greaney said Exercise Sherman simulated a terror attack in the City Room, “the very thing that occurred” 10 months later.

He added that several issues arose out of the exercises, and “to a greater or lesser extent all of these issues arose in some form or another” on 22 May.

The inquiry was told that GMP had drawn up a contingency plan for Manchester Arena, but BTP was not aware of it and did not maintain its own emergency plan.

Mr Greaney said three experts who looked at the policing response to the attack concluded “that none of the three levels of BTP command appeared to exert any multi-agency or effective scene command” after the bombing.

The experts found there was no integration of communications between BTP and GMP officers on the night.

Mr Greaney said that BTP declared a major incident but did not communicate this with GMP, adding: “The experts observed that this was a significant issue which restricted a shared understanding of the situation.”

Policing experts described the overall conduct of BTP on 22 May as “extremely good” and praised the conduct of officers who ran into the City Room to treat victims.

One man, who later died, was not evacuated from the scene more than 40 minutes after the explosion and chest compressions only started on him one hour and 15 minutes later.

“The issue of John Atkinson's survivability is, as we shall explore, a significant issue for the inquiry to consider,” Mr Greaney said.

Salman Abedi at Victoria Station making his way to the Manchester Arena (GMP/PA)

The inquiry also heard that the first paramedic arrived on scene in the City Room 19 minutes after the blast and was the only one there for the first 40 minutes.

Only one stretcher was used during the response, while hundreds of others were carried on crash barriers, makeshift carriers or carried in people’s arms.

The fire service, which did have stretchers, only arrived on scene two hours and six minutes after the bomb went off after communication failings highlighted in the previous Kerslake report.

Mr Greaney said it was important to acknowledge the huge pressure and the “agony of the moment” emergency service personnel were working under at the time.

”The inquiry may in due course conclude that, in behaving as they did, they showed the very best of humanity, acting selflessly and without apparent regard for the dangers they themselves might be in in order to seek to help those who needed it,” he added.

“What we must do is probe deeply, if there were mistakes or failings, they will need to be revealed so the bereaved families know the truth and real lessons are learned.”

BTP officer Jessica Bullough was the first police officer on the scene and described it as a “war zone”, with “bodies on the floor and blood everywhere”.

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She immediately sent a message on the radio saying “it's definitely a bomb”, finding nuts and bolts scattered across the scene and repeated requests were made for ambulances and “as many resources as possible”.

But 24 minutes after the blast, a radio message to control showed another officer asking where the ambulances were, and a controller replying: “We don't know, we're calling them again.”

The inquiry previously heard that a member of the public may have alerted PC Bullough, who received the Queen's Police Medal for bravery, to Abedi’s presence more than half an hour before the detonation.

PC Bullough said she did not remember the conversation with a woman who believes she saw him praying, while another couple told a security guard he was acting suspiciously.

The husband, identified only as witness A, challenged a man thought to be Abedi and alerted security guards.

The inquiry will examine differing accounts given about the warning, and whether a different response could have resulted in “mitigating actions … that could have reduced the impact of the attack”.

Sir John Saunders, a retired High Court judge, is leading the probe examining events before, during and after the attack.

Opening the inquiry on Monday, he said: “If I conclude things went wrong then I shall say so, but we are not looking for scapegoats. We are searching for the truth.”

In total, 22 victims were killed, 264 people were injured and 710 survivors have reported suffering from psychological trauma. The inquiry continues.