WARNING: THIS REPORT CONTAINS DETAILS OF THE AFTERMATH OF THE MANCHESTER ARENA BOMB THAT READERS MAY FIND UPSETTING.

A BUSINESSMAN has told how bantering with merchandise sellers over a £65 sweatshirt in the foyer at Manchester arena turned to carnage and chaos in a single horrific heartbeat.

IT company owner Phil Dick, of Idle, Bradford, was waiting with his wife Kim in the foyer for their youngest daughter Tamla, 17, and granddaughter Sasha, 15, when the nail bomb went off only yards away.

The 54-year-old, who believes he also saw the remains of the suicide bomber, had to check the bodies of the injured, dead and dying to see if it was his girls.

A short time later, with his wife and others, he turned a trestle table into a makeshift stretcher to get a badly injured girl out of the arena.

"We were waiting with others in the foyer for 10.25pm and having a bit of banter with the merchandise sellers about how you could possibly sell a sweatshirt for £65 when there was a real bright flash, a real loud bang and then it was just carnage, just chaos.

"People were injured all around us. There was thick acrid smoke and a horrible smell. People were laid on the floor. When I got my hearing back, there was crying and screaming.

"There was a young girl coming towards us, staggering with blood pouring out. Kim rushed forwards and grabbed her. Together we half carried half dragged her out of the foyer doors to the walkway outside.

"My wife propped her up, she was choking on her own blood. My wife screamed the girls, the girls.

"I told her to stay with the young lass and I went to look for them. I went back into the foyer and checked every person there - the injured, dead and dying to see if it was my daughter or granddaughter. It wasn't them, thankfully for us but not for other families."

Mr Dick, whose company Epaton has offices in Greengates and London, tried ringing the girls and walked through security doors separating where he was from the arena. It was there that he saw what he believes was the remains of the bomber.

"There was no debris, just the bottom half of a body. I think the blast had blown him backwards and the rest of the force had gone forwards. Most of people's injuries were from shrapnel, there were screws, nuts and bolts all over."

Mr Dick went back to his wife and finally got the call he was desperate for. His daughter and granddaughter were safe and had been evacuated by security staff.

"We were determined to stay with the young girl until she was safe. She was so brave. She was in a bad way. The police weren't letting emergency services in, in case there was another device," said Mr Dick, who used basic first aid training he remembered from his Army days.

"Event staff were throwing first aid kits to us. We used bandages to make compressions.

"She had a plastic bag melted into her hair, she'd lost lots of blood. There were tens and tens of people lying everywhere, then they let the police in, they came in waves and waves and started to evacuate us.

"We made a trestle table into a stretcher to get the girl downstairs into the station entrance where paramedics were checking people over.

"I got her name out of her and she managed to whisper her number. I rang her mum and she was in bits, I told her I had her daughter, she was injured but alive. Her dad had been coming to collect her.

"I told her to ring her husband and give him my number. With the help of me, a police officer and another policeman outside the cordon we managed to get him through the police block to get to us and they were reunited.

"At that point we'd done what we could and made our way to near the Arndale Centre where our girls were waiting. It was a pretty emotional reunion then we jumped into a black cab all the way home to Idle."

Mr and Mrs Dick have stayed in touch with the injured girl's family. She was in surgery until 4am today and then again this afternoon.

"She's still in a bad way but she's going to survive. She's got more surgery to come. She still has shrapnel in her. She has a broken arm, leg, shoulder and jaw."

Back home in Idle, he added: "People from all backgrounds were there - just young girls, with their headdresses on and Ariana bunny ears on.

"She's universally loved by teenage girls. It had been a great atmosphere. For such joy just to turn into such horror in a heartbeat, you just can't contemplate it."

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