A TEENAGER from County Durham has told of the immediate aftermath of the Manchester concert bomb.

Fourteen-year-old Callum Nicholson, from West Cornforth, near Ferryhill, attended the Ariana Grande gig at the MEN Arena with his mother, Tammy Allinson.

He described how the excitement of the gig soon turned to fear.

“The whole concert was amazing,” he said.

“Everyone left on a high from the concert and people were singing Ariana songs. We were walking from upper block 215 down the steps to get out of the concert hall and into the foyer.

"While we were stood on the stairs waiting to get down all we heard was this huge loud bang coming from round the back of the arena. Everyone thought it was a firework at first, then thousands of people started screaming and crying.

"We then had a suspicion that it was a terrorist attack. The people on our stairs froze and tried to close the door to our stairs, however people were shouting to run and I said people needed to get out of there now.”

Callum and his mum ran out of the arena and headed to Victoria Station to attempt to get a tram to their hotel.

“Myself and my mam went over to the Victoria entrance and said we needed to get home," he said. 

"This was when we were told that we could not get in as someone had detonated a nail bomb on the bridge, next to the doors of the arena which leads into the foyer.

“We hung around the station for around five minutes and then I started getting severe nosebleeds. I get them when I am worried or under a lot of stress, I was covered in blood.

“We hung around for another 30 minutes and met a lot of people who were distressed and saw a lot of children who were screaming and crying. I then saw five injured people, some had leg injuries other had arm injuries.

"One of these people included a staff member who had huge wound in his arm, most likely from one of the nails from the bomb.”

The pair were asked to evacuate the area and stood near the Arndale Centre, where Callum tried to call other people he knew at the concert.

“I had about another four friends who were there and who were actually really close to where the bomb was detonated. I was worried sick. I tried ringing them over and over again but couldn’t get in touch,” he said.

Thankfully, Callum’s friends were all okay and he and his mum eventually made it back to their hotel.

“I never thought I would be involved in a horrendous incident like this,” he said.

Meanwhile, a mother from Spennymoor fears her 13-year-old daughter may never go to another pop concert again after they were caught up in the terrorism attack.

Hazel Hill and her daughter Amie were standing in the main arena when they heard a loud bang at the end of the gig.

She initially thought it might have been a speaker falling off the stage at the Manchester Arena but then people started running towards them screaming and shouting as they tried to get out.

“My first thought was that I needed to keep Amie calm,” she said. “I told her it was just people overreacting.

“We managed to get out of the arena but then we could smell smoke but it was a really strange smell. I told her it was just the smoke machine but I knew something was wrong.

“People were just leaving coats and phones and just running. Some people were saying there was a gun man and crawling on the floor. There was a lot of pushing and shoving.

“Once we got outside there were people standing around. Nobody seemed to know what was happening. We were staying about five minutes away but it took us ages to get back to the hotel.

“My husband was in the hotel. He heard a loud bang but he didn’t know what it was.

She added: “This was Amie’s first ever concert. It was absolutely horrifying. I not sure she will ever go again. She is pretty shook. She was panicking and couldn’t catch her breath.

“We let her watch the news in the hotel. She wanted to know what was going on. It is not something I think she will ever forget.”