Cleethorpes woman relieves "terrifying" moments of Manchester Arena bombing

A 19 year-old from Cleethorpes tells us the moments of "havoc" at the Manchester Arena bombing and explains that it's changed her life.

It comes after the final report in the Manchester Arena Bombing inquiry found that actions could have been taken that might have prevented the bombing is a "significant missed opportunity".

It’s concluded intelligence received months beforehand was not acted upon quickly enough.

There are also issues with the sharing of information between authorities.

22 people lost their lives at the concert when Salman Abedi detonated his suicide device.

Kennedy Gardiner has told us how those moments were for her.

She began the day by travelling with her and her friend from Cleethorpes to Manchester.

She recalls having a bad feeling in the morning and not wanting to go, but put that down to nerves and "I didn't want to let my friend down".

They had bought the tickets together to celebrate her friend's 18th birthday, so they had decided to buy meet and greet tickets, where they could meet Ariana Grande before the concert began.

The girls made the journey in plenty of time, and were at the arena earlier than most, because of the package they bought.

Kennedy said that her bag was never checked:

"There were no bag checks throughout any of the day actually, and I remember talking to my friend and saying, I've not had my back checked, even for my own sweets or drinks.

"You know, usually they check your bags and things like that, and we didn't have a bag check when I went in to meet Ariana. We did put the bags on a table and so we didn't actually take them into the little room where Arianna was. But then we took them back again after, and that was that."

Afterwards the two of them joined the thousands of people in taking their seats and enjoying the concert.

This was Ariana's 'Dangerous Woman Tour', which began in Phoenix, Arizona on February 3rd. On this day, May 22nd, 2017, the show started and ended as planned.

But everyone knew something went wrong when a loud bang happened at the end of the show, Kennedy told us about that moment:

"We watched the concert and then literally, as she walked off stage, the lights came on and we all went to get our bags and to leave. That's when the explosion happened.

After that Kennedy remembers things in a bit of a blur, she says she gets anxiety speaking about the events and feels her brain has blocked the worst bits.

In the initial bang, Kennedy was shoved to the ground as she stood up the moment the explosion happened, after that there was a moment of silence, "it felt like an eternity".

Then the screams and running began...

"I text my mum after the bang and I was like, 'I don't know what happened, and I just, you know, I don't know if I'm gonna make it home safe, I don't know what's going on', and I think to come to that realization as a 19 year old. It's quite a big thing"

"I can't really remember. I just remember running, and then getting up after I hurt my ankle and my back quite badly. I think that was after I was trampled on and it was horrific.

"The stampede of people was just so intense. I remember at one point just being completely squashed in a group of thousands of people with no room to get out.

"I think for a little bit, you're sort of trying to think of a plan, you know how am I gonna get out of this situation and what what do I do basically and couldn't find my friend."

Kennedy lost her friend and her bag in the chaos, she remembered running round the arena feeling lost and panicked.

After a while she recalls finding her friend again and realised "we were still stuck inside and I just thought, you know, we need to leave where the bombs have gone off because it's clearer that way and it's not gonna go off in the same place twice.

"Then I remember running for the exit. I grabbed my friend's hand and I said put your head down, close your eyes and just run, and we ran out, and I cannot tell you the noises of the ambulances and the sirens. It was just insane, that's now a noise that sort of haunts me."

After being shoved and pushed they eventually made it out, about 3 hours after the explosion she said.

Once they returned to the car Kennedy burst into tears, she said:

"She my friend was a little bit more frightened in the moment, whereas I was more under, sort of survival mode, like, get myself out of this situation. I'm not gonna die here tonight.

"I remember I'd not cried at that point. I think it was more, sort of just get out, get safe and just try and stay strong. Then I got to my phone and spoke to my family and I was just an absolute state."

Now, recalling the events, she says she has a different outlook on it, she says she's suffered with after affects that means she struggles in large crowds or confined spaces.

"I went to Disneyland and so, happiest place in the world, right? You can't feel scared at Disney. But we were stood watching the fireworks, and I got to the front. There was one moment, I turned around and I was like, I'm trapped in here. I started panicking. I was like, I need to get out because... I try not be stereotypical and say, like the bangs and things like that spook you, but it does.

"Even in the cinema, if I see people sort of rush in, my heart sinks and I sort of panic. Like, where's everybody going? Why is everybody rushing? I'm just on edge a lot more and definitely thinking about it in every situation.

"I love to go see shows in the West End, but I find that I have to buy tickets on the end of a row, so, I'm not trapped in the middle, and when the show finishes, I find that that's when my anxiety sinks in. Because it's when everybody's leaving and there's queues of people to get out of the building, that's where my anxiety starts building."

She also says she's suffered with survivors guilt:

"I've still got videos of the concert on my phone of Ariana, sat on the stage singing one of her slow songs, and I'm like panning my phone around the arena and just knowing that there's people in there that are no longer here. You know, I've got footage of the last moments of their life.

"Things like that are just, I can't look, I can't watch. I've not watched recordings back at all.

"Something else that hurts is hearing stories about people that were laid up with injuries, with nobody to help because it was a hot zone - I think that's what you call it - so for an hour after the event, there was no health and safety or first aid, allowed in, just in case of another explosion.

"We've seen stories where there was people obviously laid injured from, the shrapnel from the bomb, and they've got daughters, and children, and their wives, like next to them, also injured and they can't do anything and they just laid, looking at each other in pain and you're just looking after yourself, and it was literally just everybody just looking out for themselves. There's no sort of time to do anything.

"I have struggled with that. I do wish I could have maybe stayed to help more but that's something that can't be changed."

She has tried to not let her fear beat her, but she says sometimes it's harder. She's still not been back to an arena, and says it'll be a long time until she does.

Kennedy now wants to see more put in place to prevent something like this happening again. She says everyone deserves the right to feel safe and enjoy an event.

Being in Cleethorpes she says she's felt lonely and that it's difficult to talk to people about what happened when they haven't been through it. She welcomes any other survivors to contact her privately and share their stories.

The boss of MI5 made an unprecedented public apology as he acknowledged the security service did not seize the "slim" chance it had of thwarting the Manchester Arena terror attack.

Director general Ken McCallum expressed "deep regret" that intelligence was not gathered which may have stopped suicide bomber Salman Abedi in his tracks, as he said he was "profoundly sorry" that MI5 was unable to prevent the 2017 atrocity that killed 22 people and injured hundreds.

Speaking in Manchester on Thursday, he said: "Having examined all the evidence, the chair of the inquiry has found that 'there was a realistic possibility that actionable intelligence could have been obtained which might have led to actions preventing the attack.'

"I deeply regret that such intelligence was not obtained.

"Gathering covert intelligence is difficult - but had we managed to seize the slim chance we had, those impacted might not have experienced such appalling loss and trauma. I am profoundly sorry that MI5 did not prevent the attack."

Neither MI5 nor the Home Office would say whether anyone at the security service had faced disciplinary action.

Abedi was recorded as a subject of interest (SOI) in 2014 and investigated by MI5 but later deemed "low risk". He was identified on six occasions as a contact of suspected extremists between 2013 and 2017.

The security service investigates around 3,000 active SOIs when it believes someone may pose a threat and has about 600 live investigations at any one time. Significant numbers of SOIs are overseas.

They are ranked by priority and resources will be dedicated to them depending on the level of threat they are judged to pose.

When they are no longer deemed to pose a threat, they are downgraded and marked as a "closed" SOI, joining a list of around 40,000 people who have at some point featured in probes.