Doctor overwhelmed with patients after Arena attack

Dr Michael Daley, who was on-call and was one of the first medical responders at the scene of the Manchester Arena attack in May 2017, has told the inquiry into the incident that he was ‘overwhelmed’ at the number of casualties he had to deal with.

Daly was triaging patients at the Victoria Train Station concourse after they were brought out of the arena foyer on makeshift stretchers.

He described the ‘sheer speed and volume’ with which patients were brought down, meaning that doctors were not able to triage each patient, causing them to be ‘placed wherever there was space’.

Police officers, security staff and members of the public all helped carry out casualties on tables, advertising hoardings and metal barriers.

Praising their efforts, Daley said: "In some ways I thought it was absolutely remarkable that people were assisting the way they were. It wasn't a very dignified way of bringing patients down to us, but they were extricated from the scene a lot more quickly than they would have been had we waited for stretchers, including scoop stretchers. We just wanted to get those patients out of that unsafe area to one where we could begin to treat them properly."

Daley also told the inquiry that ambulance policy at the time meant unprotected responders like him could not go into a hot zone, an area deemed to be dangerous.

Sir John Saunders, who is chairing the inquiry, will publish the first volume of his report on 17 June.