Manchester terror victim ‘brushed shoulders’ with suicide bomber moments before being blasted in attack
Martin Hibbert and his daughter were the closest survivors to the centre of the blast which killed 22 people in May
A MANCHESTER terror victim whose body was ripped apart by 22 bolts had "brushed shoulders" with the suicide bomber moments before the blast.
Martin Hibbert, 41, was a VIP ticket holder with his teenage daughter at the Ariana Grande concert on May 22 last year.
They left during the US singer's encore to beat the rush — but walked right into the path of evil Salman Abedi, 22.
The sick jihadist detonated a suicide bomb stuffed with shrapnel in the lobby of Manchester Arena, killing 22 people.
The pair were only two feet outside of the blast zone where everybody died and have been told they are the nearest survivors to Abedi.
Speaking for the first time since finally being discharged from hospital in December, Martin said: "As we were running through the foyer the bomb went off."
He added: "That's when everything changed forever, in that split second. I shouldn't be here.
"We actually bumped into the terrorist, I brushed shoulders with him, so instead of going straight on we went a different way and that's what probably saved our lives.
"I knew straight away it was a bomb. Everything was blurry, I had ringing in my ears.
"I must have gone unconscious at some point and when I woke up I was laid on my side and I couldn't move.
"I was pretty much bleeding to death."
One of the bolts severed two main arteries in Martin's neck while one tore his spinal cord and was wedged in his backbone.
He added: "One of the coppers said to me afterward, 'Never underestimate how serious it was, it's literally like somebody shooting you 22 times'."
Martin has been told he will never walk again but is determined "not to let the terrorists win".
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The father-of-one, who now lives in Heath Charnock, Lancs., with his wife of three years Gabby, has thanked the paramedic who helped save his life.
"He said that he hadn't thought I was going to make it and was surprised that I'd survived when he finished his shift and was checking up on how I was."
Football agency owner Martin vowed to "try and get back to as normal a life as possible."
He said: "You either get on with it or you don't and I've never been one to lie around in self-pity."
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