Manchester Arena Inquiry: 'No surprise' if failings reoccur

Andy Dark, of the Fire Brigades Union, said he would be surprised if future response "were not to be worse"

It would be no surprise if fire service failures after the Manchester Arena attack were to happen again, the Fire Brigades Union has told an inquiry.

Fire crews took two hours to get to the scene of the bomb on 22 May 2017.

Andy Dark, assistant general secretary of the union, also said he would be surprised if "performance in any such future incident were not to be worse".

John Cooper QC, representing some of the bereaved families, said that would "cause profound anxiety" for them.

The inquiry has heard previously that police declared a "marauding terrorist firearms attack" amid erroneous reports of gunfire.

They failed to inform the fire and ambulance services when discovering this was not the case.

This meant firefighters were kept away from the scene for two hours.

A total of 22 people were killed and hundreds more injured when a suicide bomber detonated his device as music fans streamed out of Manchester Arena following an Ariana Grande concert.

Mr Dark's statement, dated January this year, was read by Mr Cooper at the inquiry into the terror attack.

In it, Mr Dark said his union was not surprised by the service's failures, adding: "If a similar incident was to occur in the UK, the FBU would be surprised if those failings were not to be replicated.

"In fact we would be surprised if the fire and rescue service performance in any such future incident were not to be worse."

Twenty-two people died in the attack on 22 May 2017

Mr Dark told the inquiry he stood by his statement.

"Without any sense of satisfaction, it's not a salacious comment and I stand by the comment, both individually and for the Fire Brigades Union."

Mr Dark insisted he was not saying the lessons of the arena bombing had not been learned or taken on board.

But he said the union had no way of telling how widely they can be applied across fire and rescue services with a marauding terrorist firearms attack capability.

The inquiry continues.

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