HEADLINES & GLOBAL NEWS
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Feb 03, 2021 11:20 AM EST
An inquiry on the May 2017 Manchester Arena attack heard that the National counter-terrorism police relied on Twitter updates for almost two hours following the suicide-bombing.
Attack details taken from Twitter updates for about 2 hours
(Photo : Anthony Devlin/Getty Images)
MANCHESTER, ENGLAND - MAY 22: Two women hug during a two minute silence is observed in memory of the victims of the Manchester Bombing in Saint Anne s Square on May 22, 2019 in Manchester, England.The suicide bomb attack took place following a concert at Manchester Arena by US singer Ariana Grande and claimed the lives of 22 people.
Emergency services were not told about significant problems with their plans to response to terror attacks, out of fear of appearing rude, an inquiry in the Manchester Arena bombings has heard.
In May 2016, 12 months before Salman Abedi killed 22 people after an Ariana Grande concert, emergency services in Manchester took part in a training exercise to test how ready they were for a terror attack.
The scenario, dubbed Operation Winchester Accord, tested the emergency response to a marauding terrorist gunman at the Trafford Centre - less than 10 miles away from Manchester Arena.
An ongoing inquiry into the May 2017 terror attack found the training exercise a year before exposed significant issues, with communication between emergency services, as well as the workload being assigned to one officer, who was left unable to adequately fulfill his role .