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Coverage from BBC News as a memorial service is held in Manchester, one year on from the bombing at an Ariana Grande concert which left 22 people dead.
(CNN) The English city of Manchester came together Tuesday to mark the first anniversary of the terror attack that killed 22 people attending an Ariana Grande concert.
A cadet salutes during a minute's during the outside broadcast of the Manchester Arena commemoration.
Families of the victims, the injured, emergency services and local and national leaders were joined by UK Prime Minister Theresa May and Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge, for a memorial service at Manchester Cathedral.
Those inside the cathedral were joined by thousands more across the country in a minute's silence to remember those killed in the suicide bombing as they left the Manchester Arena.
Prince William read from Corinthians during a service full of song and tribute to the victims and their families.
Britain's Prince William attends the memorial service.
The cathedral service was shown on a big screen in the city as well as in other cities across Britain, including York, Liverpool and Glasgow.
A member of the clergy lights candles for the victims of Mancester Arena attack.
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Trio who were among first on scene last May say they think about the victims every day
A group of junior doctors who were among the first medics on the scene at the Manchester Arena bombing a year ago have said they think about the victims they treated that night every day.
Vicky Wijeratne, David Dolan and Matthew Burrows all attended the Ariana Grande concert at Manchester Arena on the evening of 22 May 2017. As they were waiting to leave the building, they heard a bang as Salman Abedi detonated an improvised bomb at 10.31pm.
They had not been worried until they began to see people with injuries. “We asked one officer if there was anything we could do and I remember her exact words,” said Burrows, 25. “She said: ‘I need to tell you that there has been an explosion and there have been fatalities and if you go back in it’s at your own risk. We have not secured the area.’”
The three doctors, who are in their second and third years of training, were led by the officer to a makeshift treatment area where injured people were being taken and they stayed there helping until about 3.30am.
Manchester Arena attack: thousands to mark anniversary Read more
The group recalled how the injured were carried on stretchers fashioned from pieces of carpet and tarpaulin banners. A merchandise seller brought them T-shirts to use as bandages.
The doctors mainly treated people for fractures and shrapnel injuries, working to stem bleeding. “I remember thinking: how can there be so many different injuries? What exactly has happened?” said Burrows.
“We’ve been talking recently about the people who were hurt in the attack and how we don’t have any contact with those people,” he said. “We’ve not seen any of them since and I don’t know whether they would remember us, but we wanted to use this interview as an indirect way of contacting them and saying: we still think of you every single day.”
The three junior doctors scoured the papers following the bombing to try to find out what had happened to those they treated. “There was a period immediately afterwards where the number [of deaths] was going up and you kept on thinking about the people you saw who were really poorly,” said Wijeratne, 26.
In March, a report by Bob Kerslake into the emergency response to the attack found that the fire service played “no meaningful role” as firefighters were prevented from attending the arena over concerns the attack was ongoing.
“There are clearly things to be learned [from the response to the attack] and there was clearly an access issue, but it was a new situation that people hadn’t had to deal with before,” said Wijeratne.
“At a bigger organisational level it didn’t necessarily work as well as it could have done, but the other side of it is that on an individual level people did well above anything you could have expected.”
The trio paid tribute to the arena staff and stewards, the first aid professionals staffing the concert, and bystanders, all of whom worked tirelessly throughout the night to help people.
The doctors said they had a greater appreciation for the police after the attack. “They were doing anything they could [to help treat people] and asking us to tell them what to do,” said Wijeratne. “I remember one officer who said he was in his first week,” said Burrows.
The doctors spoke of finding themselves in a position for the first time where they could not turn to a more senior colleague for advice. “It was hard because in a hospital environment you can always ask someone for help,” said Dolan, 26. “But in this situation you would get to a certain point and then just think: I don’t know what else I can do now.”
Quick guide Manchester Arena bombing report: the key points Show Hide • The Greater Manchester fire and rescue service did not arrive at the scene and therefore played “no meaningful role” in the response to the attack for nearly two hours. • A “catastrophic failure” by Vodafone seriously hampered the set-up of a casualty bureau to collate information on the missing and injured, causing significant distress to families as they searched for loved ones and overwhelming call handlers at Greater Manchester police. • Complaints about the media include photographers who took pictures of bereaved relatives through a window as the death of their loved ones was being confirmed, and a reporter who passed biscuit tin up to a hospital ward containing a note offering £2,000 for information about the injured. • A shortage of stretchers and first aid kits led to casualties being carried out of the Arena on advertising boards and railings. • Armed police patrolling the building dropped off their own first aid kits as they secured the area. • Children affected by the attack had to wait eight months for mental health support. Photograph: Oli Scarff/AFP
They said it did not feel like a whole year had passed. Instead of attending one of the official events to mark the anniversary on Tuesday, the group are going out for a quiet dinner.
Burrows is from Manchester, and Wijeratne and Dolan have lived there for about eight years. They agree the bombing has sharpened the city’s sense of identity. “It definitely brought the city together,” said Dolan. “It wasn’t like I didn’t love Manchester before, but the response has made me love it even more.”
Around 3,500 choir singers were joined by over 7,000 members of the public for a mass singalong to mark a year since a bomb at the Manchester arena killed 22 people.
The event, Manchester Together – With One Voice, saw choirs from across the city lead a crowd packed into the city’s Albert Square in renditions of songs by Manchester bands Oasis, Elbow and Take That, as well as American singer Ariana Grande – whose concert was targeted by suicide bomber Salman Abedi on 22 May last year.
The evening began with video tributes from well-known local figures. Former Manchester United player Ryan Giggs described Manchester as “a city of music and a city of love”. Johnny Marr, formerly of The Smiths, told the crowd: “My heart is always going to be in Manchester, always has been and always will be.” The Bishop of Manchester, the Rt Rev Dr David Walker, said Manchester was a city of music, so it was appropriate that people should come together “to let our music come to the forefront of who we are”.
Among the dozens of choirs to take part was the Manchester Survivors’ Choir, consisting of people who attended the concert. Founder Cath Hill told the crowd that she started the choir because she recognised that a lot of the young people caught up in the attack shared a love of music. “We are showing Manchester and the world that we carry on,” she said.
The evening ended with a surprise rendition of All You Need Is Love by the Beatles, with strangers in the crowd spontaneously hugging each other. At 10.31pm, the time the 22-year-old Mancunian of Libyan heritage detonated a bomb in his rucksack exactly a year ago, bells rang out across the city.
Rev Walker told the service that the city would never forget those who died on 22 May last year. He also pledged lifelong support for the 800 people who were injured physically or psychologically in the attack.
“Part of the horror … is that [the arena] appeared to have been deliberately chosen as a venue full of young people,” he said. “Today they are one year into living with those life-changing injuries, with many decades of continuing to do so lying ahead of them.
“A society has rituals to mark a death or console the bereaved, but we lack any any equivalent for those who have lost limbs, suffered sensory loss or will never recover their confidence again. Many of the hopes and aspirations they took with them into the arena that night have gone. Today we mark and acknowledge their suffering and pledge to play our part in their future wellbeing here on earth.”
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Watch the remembrance service at Manchester Cathedral.
At 2.30pm a national minute of silence was held, and was marked in national government buildings and at the Grenfell inquiry, which was taking place in central London.
The service was relayed to a big screen outside in Cathedral Gardens, where several thousand people had gathered. Among them was Jean Osborne, 69, who was clutching a laminated photograph of her daughter, Caroline Davis, and their friend Wendy Fawell. All three women had worked together at a school in Guiseley, serving dinners and helping at the after-school club.
Fawell died in the attack; Davis was seriously injured. They had gone to pick up their daughters from the concert and were waiting in the foyer when the bomb was detonated.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Messages of support hang from a ‘Tree of Hope’ planted as a memorial to the Manchester Arena victims. Photograph: Paul Ellis/AFP/Getty Images
“Wendy was the nicest person you could meet,” said Osborne, who, like many of those present, was wearing a T-shirt bearing Manchester’s symbol, the worker bee. “She was my hairdresser as well as my best friend and she taught me so many recipes I’d never have even thought of trying. Just last night we had her sweet and sour chicken.”
They welcomed the bishop’s pledge to remember the injured, saying Davis had been forced to go back to work as a dinner lady in spite of persistent health issues. Shrapnel from the bomb sliced her heel, a blast burn destroyed part of her skin, and she had to have one arm reconstructed.
Many teenagers in the crowd were wearing Ariana Grande T-shirts they had bought on the night of the attack. Lorraine Ness, 19, and her cousin Leigh Tilley, 10, had travelled from Fife in Scotland. “We wanted to pay our respects and get closure after what happened here that night,” said Lorraine, who has been receiving counselling for the psychological trauma she suffered.
Thousands of messages of support on cardboard tags have been attached by members of the public to 28 Japanese maple trees, which form the “Trees of Hope” trail from the square to Victoria railway and tram station.
More than 7,000 hand-stitched hearts were dotted around the city centre, with people encouraged to smile as they passed them for a social media campaign, #aheart4mcr.
Inside the cathedral, 22 candles – made using wax from the thousands of candles left in St Ann’s Square a year ago – were lit.
Photographs of the 22 victims chosen by their families were shown on the screen: 28-year-old John Atkinson, a support worker for people with autism, was sticking his tongue out at the camera; Polish couple Angelika and Marcin Klis, 39 and 42, were photographed around the corner in Exchange Square, hours before they went to pick up their daughters. Teenage sweethearts Liam Curry, 19, and Chloe Rutherford, 17, were shown together by the Tyne Bridge, near their native South Shields.
Ariana Grande sent a message to those hurt in the attack. “Thinking of you all today and every day. I love you with all of me and am sending you all of the light and warmth I have to offer on this challenging day,” she tweeted.
