Manchester Arena Report Published

Read full report here.

At just after 22:30hrs on Monday 22nd May 2017, a suicide bomber detonated an improvised device in an area known as the City Room, which is just outside the Arena and which starts a link to Victoria station. For the purpose of this report this City Room will be referred to as the ‘foyer’. Around 14,000 people, mainly teenagers and family, had travelled from across the UK to attend the concert of Ariana Grande, which was just coming to an end. The foyer was busy with exiting concert goers, waiting family members and merchandise sellers. The bomb used was substantial, containing nearly two thousand nuts, and had a devastating impact.

2. The bomb killed twenty-two people including many children. Over one hundred were physically injured and many more suffered psychological and emotional trauma. Paramedics treated many walking wounded in the city centre. Hospitals in Greater Manchester treated people with serious injuries, transported by the Ambulance Service, whilst others made their way to hospitals across the wider region.

3. The Manchester Arena attack was the deadliest in the UK since the London bombings on 7th July 2005. Although the Greater Manchester Resilience Forum had done many planning exercises, the events of 22nd May were something none of those involved had ever encountered before. This was a real-world test of the plans and assumptions.

4. This Review has focused on the response to the attack in the nine days that followed it. There is a lot to be proud of in the response, both for the city-region of Greater Manchester and its emergency services. The benefits of investing in collaborative partnership and emergency planning were demonstrated to the full. We set out in the report and summarise below the highlights of what went well. But we are conscious that we are only touching the surface of hundreds if not thousands of acts of individual bravery and selflessness.

5. As well as celebrating the things that went well however, it is vital that we also learn the lessons of what went less well. This matters for the people of Greater Manchester and beyond who were caught up in the terrible events of that night but

5 – The Kerslake Report kerslakearenareview.co.uk

also for other places that might be caught up in such an attack in the future. It is perhaps inevitable that this part of the report will get the most attention in the initial coverage. However, in the Panel’s view, the story of the response is overwhelmingly positive.

6. The Mayor of Greater Manchester has made it clear from the beginning that the experiences of bereaved families, the injured and others directly affected should be at the heart of the process. The Panel was in complete agreement with this view. This focus on those caught up in the attack has been integral to the way that the Review has been conducted and the questions that we have sought to answer. It is inevitable that these individual experiences have not all been the same and we have sought to reflect the different views and perspectives in the way that we have written the report.

7. This Review sits alongside and draws on the numerous single and multi-agency debriefings that have been done by the emergency and other services following the attack. The Review comes ahead of the inquests into the deaths of those who lost their lives as a result of the attack. From the outset, the Panel has been clear that it would not address issues concerning the death of the individuals deceased nor any question of the survivability of the injuries sustained by those who sadly died.

8. In the following paragraphs, we highlight some of the things that went well and the major lessons to be learnt. This is by no means comprehensive; the full recommendations of the report are summarised in Chapter 6.