within about 3-4 minutes. but it was devastating. reporter: did you see anyone yourself who had been injured or were you too far away from that foyer area you were describing? we didn t see anybody. just traumatized people. we didn t see it but you could smell it. we only heard one explosion. shepard: one of the early witnesses talking to sky news the last hour and a half or so. on the phone with us is aaron mcdougle. thank you for joining us. what did you see and hear? we only heard one explosion as well. we were on the far side. shepard: erin mcdougle. caller: over from where the explosion happened. it was just a big rush. feels like a big blur now. we just heard one big shaking explosion. from the left side of the hall. and then just everybody running
incident happened in the foyer area. the incident took place outside the venue in a public space, our thoughts and prayers go out to the victims. going to going out to a witness, someone who is there, a man called chris polley, he was on the scene, shot video what he saw. thankfully he and his friends escape the scene without being injured. here s part of what he shot. right there. we assume this is him on the line? what are we looking at? as a lobby? that s actually in the station. coming out of the arena just before trying to beat the rush to come out a few minutes early. coming just out of where the box office is in the arena and then go to the train station as we get to the top of this, heard the biggest explosion, and it was about 20 minutes from where we stood. everybody started panicking.
it s still unclear whether the suicide bomber managed to get in. but the timing of the bombing, if it was a suicide bomber, someone setting it off on purpose, if that s the scenario, it appears to be someone setting it off as people were e leaving the arena. the concert we re told by many witnesses was just ending and people were starting to stream out and that s when the explosion happened. and the authorities here have been told by british authorities that that a large number of the casualties were caused by the crush of people, the stampede of people trying to get out of the arena, the witnesses say, of course, they didn t know where the explosion happened. they couldn t see it, many of them, if in fact it was in this foyer area. some reported hearing an explosion. those were the people who were outside in that area where the suicide bomber was.
this 21,000 seat arena, relatively new one opened in the mid-90s is the victoria street to the next train station. basically one building a joins the next, from people outside of anyone who might ve been attending the concert. perhaps a lack of security going into the concert and some focused on the area inside the concert area. it might not be necessary to understand what is going on here. again, the arena connects with the train station in manchester and the explosions appear to come from what they call the foyer area next to the main concert hall, and that s where the explosions came from but
translator: he was so intelligent. i thought my son was going to be someone. on that fateful summer night in 2012, furtado, de abreu and three other friends arrive at a nightclub called cure lounge just after midnight and park nearby. the victims had traveled to the theater district in a gray 2003 bmw. at approximately 12:30 a.m. the victims entered the foyer area of the cure lounge. prosecutors say nothing unusual appears to have happened while the group is inside. the five men leave cure nightclub about 2:00 a.m. and pick up their car at a nearby garage.