The threat level was raised to “critical” in May 2017 after the Manchester Arena bombing
A FORMER senior British Transport Police (BTP) officer has expressed regret and "professional embarrassment" after he arrived at Manchester Arena in a taxi nearly three hours after the bombing in 2017 which killed 22 people.
Kyle Gordon, who was a superintendent of BTP and is now a commander with the Metropolitan Police, was off-duty and not on-call on the night of the terrorist attack on May 22 2017.
He was appointed bronze commander on the night and tasked with co-ordinating events at ground level.
An inquiry into the terror attack heard Commander Gordon was tasked to attend the venue at 11.12pm from his temporary accommodation in Blackpool, and was recorded as being on-scene at 1.23am.