Only three paramedics ‘were allowed to treat victims’ at Manchester Arena attack
ONLY three paramedics were allowed to treat bomb victims inside the foyer of the Manchester Arena, witnesses have revealed.
Phil and Kim Dick told how they screamed for medics to help, only to be told no one could enter the blast site over fears of further attacks.
The couple were waiting for their daughter and granddaughter to come out of the Ariana Grande concert in May when they were caught up in the suicide blast that killed 22 people and injured 512.
Kim, 55, of Bradford, West Yorks, helped a young girl with “horrific” injuries for more than an hour.
She added: “She could hardly walk. She was stumbling, bleeding from her arm and her mouth and her leg, and her hair was burnt.
“I just kept shouting: ‘We need paramedics now’. And they [armed police] just said: ‘We’re just making sure there are no more bombs’.
“We could hear the ambulances all the time. I just kept shouting we need paramedics, we need paramedics now.
Hubby Phil, 54, added: “There was just too much for just three paramedics to deal with.
“The longer it went on the more silent it became. It was really eerie and people who I had seen a little earlier, who were severely injured, were now dead.”
He added: “Clearly they didn’t know if there was another bomb, I understand that.
“But they deployed tens if not hundreds of police officers into that foyer, if some of these had been medically trained then some people’s injuries could have been dealt with quicker and perhaps some lives could have been saved.”
Only one paramedic from the North West Ambulance Service made it into the foyer before the police cordon was made secure.
Over the next hour he was joined by two colleagues.
A review into emergency services’ response to Salman Abedi’s nail bomb is set to be published next year.
Mayor of Manchester Andy Burnham, who set up the independent inquiry, said: “We’ve got to get inside those issues, what happened, was it the right response and learn from it and that’s the whole point of this review.”
The report investigating the delays in treating victims of the Manchester Arena attack was aired on BBC Inside Out last night and is available on BBC iPlayer.
