Manchester Arena Inquiry: Emergency response was 'almost faultless'

The emergency services' response to the Manchester Arena attack was "commendable" and "almost faultless," a police chief has said.

Ch Insp Dale Sexton, from Greater Manchester Police (GMP), was the force duty officer in the control room.

He told the inquiry into the 2017 bombing that "everyone tried and did their absolute best on that night".

But he admitted there were failures in joint working in the very early stages and accepted he was partly responsible.

Twenty-two people were killed and hundreds more injured when Salman Abedi detonated a bomb at the end of an Ariana Grande concert at about 22:30 BST on 22 May 2017.

Ch Insp Sexton said: "The response of all emergency services and members of the public to the incident, I think is almost faultless.

"In the cold light of day you can look at every action that people did or didn't do, but everyone tried and did their absolute best on that night."

Ch Insp Sexton told the inquiry on Wednesday he deliberately broke policy on the night of the bombing, in order to save lives.

Giving evidence for a second day, he praised the work of responders on the ground and those in emergency services' control rooms.

"I do not believe...that we could have done much more to maximise, in my opinion, the survivability and response to the injured and unfortunately those who became victims," he said.

He agreed the principles of joint working was "potentially non-existent" in the early stages but denied that joint working between emergency services "entirely failed".

He also told the inquiry that the number of calls from the media coming through to his force duty officer line was "relentless".

The hearing was told that the press now have a separate phone line to call to avoid this happening in the future.

The inquiry continues.

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