Manchester Arena Inquiry: Medical equipment 'dumped' at bomb scene

Medical equipment could have been distributed "more effectively" to help those injured in the Manchester Arena bombing, a public inquiry has heard.

An ambulance expert said items including triage packs and stretchers were "dumped" outside Victoria Station during the emergency response.

"Deployment of the equipment didn't quite reach our expectations," Christian Cooper told the hearing.

He said more should have been taken to the City Room where the bomb exploded.

Twenty-two people died and hundreds more were injured when Salman Abedi detonated a device at the end of an Ariana Grande concert on 22 May 2017.

Mr Cooper said: "The [triage] cubes and some of those stretchers carried by [the Hazardous Area Response Team] that ended up in the equipment dump outside Victoria Station, our expectation would have been that the starting point for that equipment should have been up in the City Room."

He also told the inquiry that North West Ambulance Service (NWAS) could have made better use of stretchers available.

Police, arena staff and members of the public were forced to use metal crowd barriers, tables and advertising boards to carry casualties out of the foyer.

The hearing was told that Mr Cooper's report highlighted "some failings and some missed opportunities" in the emergency response by NWAS but its performance overall was "mostly good and mostly compliant".

The inquiry continues.

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