A Barnhill woman has revealed how she and her 13-year-old-daughter were caught up in a “mass panic” following Monday night’s terrorist attack in Manchester.
Liz Bannon, 30, and daughter Aimee Ferme, 13, were still in the Manchester Arena when the bomb went off.
Aimee, who has just turned 13, had received a ticket for Ariana Grande’s concert at Christmas and the trip to Manchester had been arranged to celebrate her becoming a teenager.
“It was just the loudest bang you have ever heard,” said Liz.
“It stopped everybody in their tracks. Everyone looked at each other and then there was a mass panic, people started running and trying to get to the exits.”
Liz said security guards began telling people to get out of the building and she saw wheelchair users picked up and carried out of the building.
She and Aimee then went out on the streets to “get as far away as they could”.
There, they met a Stockport woman and her 10-year-old daughter who took them in until Aimee’s dad could drive down to Manchester to collect them.
“Lisa Martin, the woman who took us in said Stockport was mile away but I don’t know Manchester so didn’t really feel safe until we got picked up,” said Liz.
“We are still in a bit of shock. Now that we are home we are feeling a bit better, just horrified that so many people have died and that there are children involved.”
She added: “It was Aimee’s first concert.
“We were talking at the concert about how it would be the first of many but I don’t know if it will be now.”
