Skegness cabbie spent hours searching for two lads caught up in Manchester terror attack because he ‘promised their mum he’d get them home safe’
A CABBIE from Skegness is being hailed a hero after spending hours searching for two lads caught up in the Manchester terror attack because he’d “promised their mum he would get them home safe”.
Brave dad Paul Jowett, 40, risked his own safety by walking towards the scene of the blast to find them - as wounded, traumatised victims fled from the arena.
Paul had taken the two lads, aged 11 and 19, 140 miles from Skegness to the Ariana Grande concert on Monday night and was booked to wait for them nearby before bringing them home.
He told how the younger boy was very excited as it was his first gig.
Around 10:30pm Paul received a text from the 19-year-old asking if they could meet 15 minutes later, as the show had overrun.
But as he walked to the arena to fetch them he got a phone call from the terrified teenager asking him to pick them up straight away as there had been a terror attack.
The lads had been ushered out of the back entrance and were waiting near a big crane and a burger van.
Paul recalled: “I set off in my car, but as I got to the end of the street the police had just turned up and I got turned away.
“I had to go and park up again, further away than I’d originally parked. I phoned him back and said I couldn’t get to him in the car, telling them to stay put as I was coming on foot.
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Paul phoned his bosses at who called the boys’ mum to let her know what had happened and that Paul was going to fetch them.
As Paul reached the road to the station, he found it had been cordoned off by police.
He noticed a gap at the side, so he snuck through and headed up towards the arena exit – where the bomb had gone off.
“Thinking about it yesterday and watching it on TV, I thought, ‘That was really quite stupid’, because there could have been another bomb,” Paul admitted.
“But I was just thinking about getting those kids home. I’ve got two kids myself and I knew they needed to be found and taken back.”
But when he got to where they’d agreed to meet, the police had evacuated everyone from the area.
Paul recalled: “I started to panic a little bit. I was on the phone to my bosses saying I couldn’t find him, and his phone had just gone dead.
“Police weren’t letting me back the way I’d just come. I decided to go back to where the taxi was originally parked to see if they’d headed back in that direction.
“There were thousands of people trying to get away from the arena.
“Mainly women and children in tears, people who couldn’t find their kids, walking wounded, people lying on the floor, paramedics with them – the emergency services were absolutely fantastic.
“There’s one image that I can’t get out of my mind.
“I’ve got a granddaughter that’s six, and there was a little girl about the same age being dragged by her mum down the street trying to get away with blood dripping out of her face.
“A lot of people that were there didn’t see paramedics immediately because they just wanted to get out of the way.”
When Paul got back to where he’d originally parked the taxi there was still no sign of them, so he headed back towards the scene – at which point the older lad managed to call him as one of the local taxi drivers had let him charge his phone.
As Paul made his way around the arena he spied the Park Inn, where the other driver then dropped off the boys.
Paul said: “It was awful. The scenes I saw are something I’d never want to see again, ever.
“The lads were in a bit of shock but the eldest had looked after the youngest one.”
It took Paul three-and-a-half hours to drive back to Skegness and he dropped off the boys around 4:15am, before returning to his proud family.
Paul admitted that being back in the quiet seaside town feels surreal.
“It doesn’t seem like it happened,” he said.
“But it’s implanted in my head. At the moment I’m having trouble sleeping. But I’ve just got to carry on.”
The modest cabbie added: “I’m not a hero, I did my job.
“My job was to take the kids and get them home safe, and if either of the kids had been injured I’d have been at the hospital with them waiting until either the parents came or I could take them home.
“I’d promised their mum I’d get them home safe. If it was my kids, I’d want someone to be searching for them.”
Yesterday Theresa May raised the UK threat level to “critical” for the first time in 10 years, with up to 3,800 soldiers on the streets because another terror attack could be “imminent”.
Tonight Paul will return to Manchester to pick up a fare from the airport.
He said: “I’m not letting anyone stop me from going to any major places and doing my job.”