Two teenage friends caught up in the explosion at Manchester Arena last night have described their shock at witnessing injured concert-goers fleeing the venue.

Bethany Cook, 17, a Shipley College student from Bingley, received her Ariana Grande concert ticket as a Christmas present from her dad, and managed to get a ticket for her friend Chelsea Woolley, 18, from Bradford, as a present for her birthday earlier this month.

The pair happened to be in the toilets as the explosion hit last night, so were uninjured, but were horrified by what they saw.

Miss Cook said: “There was one girl collapsed on the floor and people were telling her to stay awake, another girl had her hand bandaged and I saw a police officer carrying a very young girl, probably about seven-years-old.

“I just keep thinking if we hadn’t nipped to the toilet we might have been nearer to the explosion when it happened. I’m still in shock and feel sick and have hardly had any sleep. It’s been traumatising.”

She described how the friends were supposed to go straight to the station to get a train home, but they decided to set off during the last song and went to the toilet first.

She told the Telegraph & Argus: “We were about 20ft away from where it happened. I could just hear everyone talking, then this massive bang and nobody knew what it was or what to do.

“They were just looking at each other. We ran out of the building as fast as we could and managed to get out of the side door.

“It wasn’t until we were outside and started seeing people with blood and dirt on them that we realised just how serious it was.

“I managed to get hold of my mum and dad straight away to let them know what had happened and that we were okay.”

The pair ended up waiting at the nearby Travelodge for about four hours before managing to get a lift home.

Miss Woolley said: “We went to the toilet during the last song, and we heard this really loud bang. If we hadn’t left for the toilet when we did would have ended up right there at the exit when it happened. We heard the bang and saw a smoke cloud. Because we were already in the toilets we managed to get out before most other people. We thought it was a bomb straight away.

“We got home at about 3.30am, we were going to get the train back but luckily we managed to get a lift. We were lucky because I had my portable phone charger.

“People were all helping each other. People were letting others who didn’t have phones or had no battery use their phones to let their family know they were okay.”

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