LONDON: Just one paramedic attended the scene of the Manchester Arena bombing during the first 40 minutes after the blast, and at least two victims had to wait over an hour for medical attention, an inquiry has heard.
The inquiry into the 2017 bombing entered its second day on Tuesday, with the inquiry’s counsel, Paul Greaney, telling the court that it would have to consider whether more lives could have been saved.
Greaney was critical of the emergency services’ response and coordination in the wake of the attack.
He said only three ambulances were available on the night of the attack, and a police officer had to plead for ambulances 24 minutes after the bomb exploded as crowds left the Ariana Grande concert.
At 10:33 p.m., two minutes after Salman Abedi’s bomb detonated, one police officer sent a radio message saying “it’s definitely a bomb,” and requested backup and ambulances.
Twenty minutes later, another officer from Manchester police’s firearms division reported that the bomber was dead, and urged emergency services to send more ambulances. “We just need more ambos and paramedics. Any one they can get hold of, please,” he said.
Two minutes after that call, another police officer phoned the control room. “You’re going to hate me, where’s our ambulances please?” he said.
At least two victims received medical attention more than an hour after the blast. The inquiry was told that their lives may have been saved had they received medical attention earlier.
One victim, an 18-year-old woman, was removed from the blast zone at 11:26 p.m. — nearly an hour after the explosion — and was put into an ambulance at 11:38 p.m. She later died.
Another, a 28-year-old man, was evacuated from the part of the arena where the blast took place, the City Room, at 11:17 p.m.
He was removed on a makeshift stretcher, made from a display board found in the arena, and received medical attention at 11:47 p.m. but later died. Greaney said the “issue of (his) survivability is a significant issue for the inquiry to consider.”
Most patients were removed using makeshift stretchers, with only one medical stretcher in use all evening.
The inquiry was also told that in July 2016, Manchester authorities identified the City Room in the arena as a potential target for terrorist attacks.
Greaney said: “The very fact that a terrorist attack in the City Room was expressly envisaged as a suitable set of facts for a multiple-agency exercise may speak volumes about how obvious a target for terrorists the City Room was.”
The inquiry is expected to continue into spring 2021, and will explore whether there were any failings by security services, the police or arena staff in preventing and responding to the attack.
Manchester bombing victims waited 75 minutes for medical help
https://arab.news/zr3qt
Manchester bombing victims waited 75 minutes for medical help
- At least two victims received medical attention more than an hour after the blast
- The inquiry was told that their lives may have been saved had they received medical attention earlier
Canada PM Carney says can’t rule out military participation in Iran war
- Carney had said the US-Israeli strikes on Iran were “inconsistent with international law”
- However, he supports the efforts to stop Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon
CANBERRA, Australia: Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Thursday that he couldn’t rule out his country’s military participation in the escalating war in the Middle East.
Carney’s visit to Australia this week has been overshadowed by expanding war in the Middle East, sparked by a massive US-Israeli strike on Iran that killed its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Speaking alongside local counterpart Anthony Albanese in Canberra, Carney was asked whether there was a situation in which Canada would get involved.
“One can never categorically rule out participation,” he said, while stressing the question was a “hypothetical” one.
“We will stand by our allies,” said Carney, adding that “we will always defend Canadians.”
Carney had said the US-Israeli strikes on Iran were “inconsistent with international law.”
However, he supports the efforts to stop Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon — a position that Canada takes “with regret” as it represented “another example of the failure of the international order.”
The Canadian leader reiterated on Thursday his call for a “de-escalation” of the conflict.
Carney’s trip is part of a multi-country tour of the Asia-Pacific aimed at reducing reliance on the United States — a hedge against what he has described as a fading US-led global order.
The Australia leg of the tour is aimed at bringing in investment and deepening ties with a like-minded “middle power” partner.
‘Middle power’ rallying cry
On Thursday morning he issued a rallying cry in Australia’s parliament to “middle powers,” urging them to work together in an increasingly hegemonic world order.
Nations like Australia and Canada faced a stark choice — work together to help write the “new rules” of the global order or have great powers do it for them, he said.
“In this brave new world, middle powers cannot simply build higher walls and retreat behind them. We must work together,” he said.
“Great powers can compel, but compulsion comes with costs, both reputational and financial,” the former central banker added.
“Middle powers like Australia and Canada hold this rare convening power because others know we mean what we say and we will match our values with our actions.”
The Canadian leader also said the two countries would together as “strategic collaborators” to pool their vast combined rare earth mineral resources.
And he detailed renewed cooperation in areas from defense to artificial intelligence.
“We know we must work with others who share our values to build solid capabilities,” he told parliament.
Otherwise, he warned, they risked being “caught between the hyperscalers and the hegemons.”
The Canadian leader has frequently clashed with US President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly threatened to annex Canada and slapped swingeing tariffs on the country.
In a speech to political and financial elites at the World Economic Forum in January, Carney warned the US?led global system of governance was enduring “a rupture.”
