A POLICE inspector thought the Manchester Arena blast scene was safe to operate in as he persistently asked for paramedics and ambulance staff to attend, an inquiry has heard.

Inspector Mike Smith, of Greater Manchester Police (GMP), was one of the first unarmed officers to enter the City Room foyer as he arrived about 15 minutes after suicide bomber Salman Abedi detonated his device at the end of an Ariana Grande concert in May 2017 which killed 22 people and injured hundreds.

Only three paramedics went into the City Room on the night as the dying and injured were evacuated on crash barriers, noticeboards and tables, the public inquiry into the atrocity has heard.

Shortly after his arrival Mr Smith messaged on his radio: "Every available ambulance to me please," and continued to make similar pleas from the foyer in his role as GMP bronze commander.

He told the inquiry: "I do remember walking round the room, probably trying to think about what do I need to do to get a grip of this, really. And I think my strategy from a pretty early stage was we need to get the people who are injured out of here, longer term this is a crime scene."

Nicholas de la Poer QC, counsel to the inquiry, asked: "What was your immediate priority?"

Mr Smith replied: "Preservation of life, the people who were injured."

Describing his dynamic risk assessment of the scene, he said: "I did decide that I couldn't rule out the fact that there may be other attackers or terrorists within the complex, but I was pretty happy that there were no other terrorists within the City Room itself.

"The rest of the complex? The arena is obviously quite a large building - I couldn't rule that out at all.

"I could see that there were some firearms officers present already, I was aware I'd seen a couple coming in who were kitting up, ready to go. So my guess was that there would be more and more coming here, so I felt safe in that sense from a firearms attack of any kind.

"There was nothing over the air to me suggesting that there was anybody roaming with a weapon. I couldn't rule out the fact that there might have been a secondary device there, but I think the rapid conclusion I came to was that was unlikely."

Asked by Mr de la Poer if it was enough to have just three paramedics in the City Room at just after 11.15pm, Mr Smith said: "Well, I don't know how many people were left in the room at that point, but in the ideal world if they work in pairs - you would want a pair for each of those people who were still there, because by that stage they were probably either the most seriously injured or the most difficult to move, possibly."

Lisa Roberts QC, for North West Ambulance Service (NWAS), asked: "You formed the view, quite understandably, that you wanted for any and all medics to go to the City Room. Is that a view you formed when you immediately entered the City Room?"

Mr Smith said: "Yes, I would say so. You want the most expert people in there to treat those injuries, stabilise them or whatever term you want to use. The experts are paramedics from NWAS."

He agreed with Miss Roberts that he could not expect paramedics to be there immediately, and that by 11.07pm the first of 38 seriously ill casualties had been taken from the City Room - at a time when only 10 paramedics were able to attend the scene and they were downstairs in the Victoria railway station concourse.

15-year-old Bury schoolgirl, Olivia Campbell and Bury man John Atkinson, 26, were among the 22 people killed.

The inquiry resumes on Monday.