“The leaves came back here as indicating that those spaces had been treated,” Allen said.
Allen said, “It’s definitely a missed opportunity. “
Mr. Allen said, “Yes. “
Mr. Allen said, “Now, yes. “
“I’ve been inspired, ” said Allen.
“They are market leaders in their box and belong to the world’s largest promotion company, Live Nation. “
Mr. Allen said, “Yes. “
Mr. Greaney asked, “Do you settle for this disturbing unsettling?”
“I am content that we have presented more options, yes,” Allen said.
He asked the witness, “Can I invite you to agree that this is not a situation that can be resolved?”
Allen said, “We would have liked to have done more if we could have done it. “
Mr Greaney QC asked Mr. Allen, “Why were the arrangements now in place at the time?”
Allen said, “We haven’t been to start those operations. “
Mr Greaney QC asked, “Should this city room challenge have been at this stage?”
Mr. Allen replied, “Yes, I do. “
Mr Greaney asked, “Has this been considered?”
“I don’t think so, ” said Allen.
When asked who had any idea about it, he replied “the other people who make the ProgressionArray. . Network Rail”.
Mr Greaney QC said, “Would it be moderate to say” this is a domain we want to think about in terms, for example, of whether a user who wants to hurt can simply wait?”
Mr. Allen said, “Yes. “
Mr. Greaney said, “Do you ever know this?”
Mr. Allen said, “I don’t think so. “
Mr Greaney QC said: “If [Showec] didn’t walk in this area, we have a guy who intends to cause serious damage to this mezzanine for an hour without a physical examination and who is at a black point. Array. . . have a reaction to this state of events?”
Allen replied, “It’s a missed opportunity, yes, I agree. “
“Can you agree that the facts, it turns out that the mezzanine has not been reviewed?”Greaney QC.
Mr. Allen said, “Yes, that’s the case.
“During the events, we had Showsec staff to help us in the spaces where the audience allowed us to be. “
The main representatives of SMG and Showsec must testify this week in the public inquiry into the atrocity of the Manchester Arena bombing.
SMG is the company that operates the arena.
Showsec is the security and management company.
Chapter Seven of the investigation will continue this week, the ninth week of public inquiry.
The bankruptcy examines the security operation in position on 22 May 2017 and the stadium itself.
The independent investigation, established through Interior Minister Priti Patel, is expected to continue in October last year until spring 2021.
At the end of an Ariana Grande concert, 22-year-old suicide bomber Salman Abedi detonated a bomb in a backpack in a hallway in the Arena, known as the City Rooms, killing 22 other people and injuring many more. His younger brother, Hashem Abedi, now 23, was convicted of 22 counts of manslaughter, one count of attempted murder and one count of conspiracy to cause an explosion as a result of a trial in March. He was jailed for at least 55 years in August. The investigation examines the cases that led to the deaths of 22 other people in the explosion. A number of other questions will also be explored. They include: – Evidence about the Arena complex itself and the security arrangements that were in place – The “ planning and preparation ” carried out through the Abedi brothers – The emergency reaction – The detonation and its effects – The context and radicalization of Salman Abedi – Could the attack have been prevented? The investigation is expected to last several months until the spring of next year. The Manchester Evening News will provide live updates here.
The investigation is complete for the day and will resume tomorrow.
The British Transport Police are now asking questions.
Allen said SMG had paid for special cops inside the stadium.
He said SMG didn’t necessarily need uniformed officers inside the arenas, because other people would forget about the Stewards of Showec and face all their questions and considerations to the officers.
Decisions about police surveillance in the arenas would depend on the nature of the event, as would other problems, such as criminal data or data from other arenas, with the investigation.
Allen describes his BTP dating over the years as “very good. “
SMG conducted two tests: a comprehensive assessment and an occasion assessment, according to the survey.
The research is presented with the evaluation of Ariana Grande’s concert.
There are several chapters dealing with special effects, seats, level construction, leakage cables, public and equipment, etc.
Reference is made to injuries caused by the chimney and malfunction of the appliance.
But nowhere in the document is a terrorist attack mentioned, according to the investigation.
Allen admits that this is “unacceptable” and that he has been “covered” in the document.
As for Ariana Grande’s concert, there were between 175 and 180 Showsec performing that night, Allen says.
Showec’s overall assessment for the arena is also presented.
The overall threat score for the fight against terrorism was found to be low, according to the survey.
Mr. Allen admits it too low.
At the time, he said he had “just noticed the gap,” but had seen how it had been calculated.
When asked if SMG and Showsec had “properly addressed” the threat of fighting terrorism, Allen said, “This has been the case in the role in threat assessment, but also in mitigation and training, etc. “
Allen, in a statement, defined a number of adjustments that SMG has made since the pump.
In terms of physical security, U. S. security experts were assigned the task of conducting a review and adjustments were made to build the security perimeter away from the entrances to the arena.
Security checks and searches have now been performed on perimeter areas.
Metal detectors are already in use; about 35 would be used for an Ariana Grande concert.
Internal security has been designated.
Since the attack, an advanced CCTV was installed, according to the investigation.
A “check before leaving” sheet is sent on request.
These are checks performed before other people leave the concerts.
When asked who the document was, Allen replied that he was a member of his Arena – SMG team.
The City Room is particularly indexed and the text reads “the entire City Room area, adding the front to McDonald’s and JD Williams. “
When asked about his expectations for City Room controls, Allen replied, “To all spaces throughout the City Room and tickets to City Room and City Room. “
He said he believed and hoped those controls would come with ‘full space’, adding the mezzanine point where the Abedi bomber hid before detonating his bomb.
The investigation already learned that Showec did not believe they expected to review the elevated mezzanine.
“The leaves came back here as indicating that those spaces had been treated,” Allen said.
Mr Greaney QC stated that no group of security workers had crossed the mezzanine while Salman Abedi was there.
Allen said, “It’s definitely a missed opportunity. “
Mr Greaney asked the witness, “Was it totally unacceptable in his opinion that this domain was not controlled while Salman Abedi expected it?”
Mr. Allen said, “Yes. “
“Are you content that SMG has done more to make sure Showsec knew you expected Showsec staff to review this area?”
Mr. Allen said, “Now, yes. “
He said there were briefings and education that together meant that the domain was being verified.
Mr. Allen who believed that SMG had done more than “just create a form”.
Mr Greaney QC asked the witness, “Whatever SMG did, the message seems to have happened, doesn’t it?”
Mr. Allen said, “No. “
Mr. Allen said SMG had Showsec to ensure that education ended through its administrators, but would check with them at key functionality indicator meetings.
Showsec, GMP and BTP would be invited to multi-agency with SMG.
The witness said he had common contact with the British Transport Police.
“If we look for BTP because of an event, and either party thinks it’s necessary, we’d take the BTP to the arena,” he said.
Officers would be in the lobby, as well as Victoria Station staff and outside staff, Mr. Allen.
The booking of Showsec staff was made through SMG – SMG how many employees were needed for an event.
Since its opening, the Arena has been “supported in its security operations” through Showsec, to research.
“I’ve been inspired, ” said Allen.
“They are market leaders in their box and belong to the world’s largest promotion company, Live Nation. “
They would be experienced or well supervised, he said.
It wasn’t about crowd management, Allen says, but they also performed a security function.
Research now focuses on how SMG handles an event.
At the time of the attack, the arena workplace in the City Room area.
Allen said it was vital for SMG that other people didn’t bring food and drink to the sand, first of all in an advertising sense.
Most of the product stalls were in the arena, but for Ariana Grande’s concert, one more stand was placed in the town hall, for which SMG had to pay the owner, according to the research.
Some artists would ask for express policies, Allen says.
Each concert would have a service manager, occasion managers and occasional technicians, according to the survey. The service manager would be in a room to look at the CCTV images at ”certain hours’, adding ‘entry and exit’,’ Mr. Allen said.
He said they’d look “only if something catches their eye. “
Allen said the arena was not visited through the board or the Security Industry Authority in terms of licensing.
The Arena’s license required it to have a written policy for the protection of spectators, the investigation said.
The council went on to ask to review the policy, Mr. Allen.
Mr. Allen agreed that it was unexpected that the board or other officials had not visited the arena in terms of licensing in some areas.
The investigation is now suspended for lunch.
Mr Greaney QC asked: “Do you settle for the one who is looking at todayArray . . . considers it absolutely disturbing that SMG has not even checked to take action before the attack [to make security changes]?”
Mr. Allen said, “Yes. “
Mr Greaney asked, “Do you settle for this disturbing problem?”
“I’ll settle for that we’ve presented more options, yes,” Allen said.
The sand cordon has now moved to the complex, according to research.
Mr Greaney QC stated at the time that there was a genuine threat of an attack on the sand and an acute threat to be in the City Hall.
There have been attacks at concerts and stadiums.
“We knew the risk, but it’s a domain where we don’t personally delight as an organization,” Allen said.
“We deal with fires, structural siege failures, antisocial behavior, all those kinds of elements of the occasion process, however, for terrorism, we do not delight directly within our organization, so we seek as many recommendations as we can get from others. “
Allen agreed that he and SMG had a duty to “do something” before May 2017, which included protecting others in the city corridor after the concert.
He said: “We have mitigation measures and operations in place. “
Mr Greaney QC stated that Mr. Allen had accepted that the type of measures recently taken in the arena “had not even been envisaged until 22 May 2017”.
He asked the witness, “Can I invite you to agree that this is not a situation that can be resolved?”
Allen said, “We would have liked to have done more if we could have done it. “
Sherman’s assignment took place in July 2016 at Greater Manchester headquarters and the Fire and Rescue Service for investigation.
Allen said: “We were invited to attend the Sherman Project, which was organized at the chimney headquarters.
“We didn’t know why we had been invited, but when we got there and started on the opening slide, we understood because the opening scene referred to the Manchester Arena and a marauder shooter.
“We observers.
“We were sitting on the side watching them do a workout on the slides on table 1, 2Array . . . what you’re doing at this point . . . afternoon.
In the past, Mr. Allen stated that, as a component of in-house training, SMG had conducted similar educational training with the city council.
Mr. Allen said SMG is constantly searching from time to time to make sure there is enough security in place.
The witness said he was aware of the bomb van in the London Docklands and the IRA attack in Manchester in 1996, and that he had “terrorism in mind. “
Mr. Allen, that the terrorist risk was greater in terms of sand, not inside the site, but outside.
He said SMG had learned of the suicide bombings at the Stade de France stadium in France in 2015, which occurred off-site.
Table-based education was organized for the arena and Allen attended a specialized seminar, according to the survey.
Salman Abedi’s CCTV is now being released.
He captured walking to a platform at the tram station and then through an elevator back to the Arena.
Mr. Allen said he would enter the city corridor now with arrangements in position taking the direction he took.
Mr Greaney QC asked Mr. Allen, “Why were the arrangements in place at the time?””
Allen said, “We haven’t been to start those operations. “
He said it was because the public had access to the city corridor and that the agreement of the other stakeholders would have been mandatory for SMG to have the city corridor.
No attention was paid to the removal of the perimeter of the sand gates prior to the attack, according to the investigation.
Allen said SMG had taken care of the existing security scenario, and that’s “substantial. “
He said the loading problems were an explanation of why things had been replaced beforehand.
The research is now examining adjustments to the way audiences have been made in the arena since 2017.
Why weren’t those adjustments made before the attack was examined?
The arena reopened on September 9 after the attack, with a new security plan in place.
Designed with experts, the investigation said.
“We have spoken to several other people in the fight against terrorism. Array. . . many others have been concerned about the progression of this strategy,” Allen said.
Corden points and “soft ticket checks” have been created along a “search area”.
Mr. Allen agreed that the city corridor had a “safety circuit” and that SMG knew this fact before the attack.
Thousands more people were “flooding” the city corridor after the fact.
Allen agreed that the city corridor may simply be “attractive to a terrorist who wishes to harm members of the public. “
“Every place, every shipping center, I think, is a domain of interest to a terrorist,” he said.
In 2013, the entire neighborhood was resurfaced.
Mr Greaney QC asked, “Should this city room challenge have been at this stage?”
Mr. Allen replied, “Yes, that’s right. “
Mr Greaney asked, “Has this been considered?”
“I don’t think so, ” said Allen.
When asked who had any idea about it, he replied “the other people who make the ProgressionArray. . Network Rail”.
Mr. Allen said he hoped Showec would still patrol “be the pair of eyes” and do checks before the occasion and before liberation.
The other people on specialized patrols retreated to the CCTV control room where the shows are shown, according to the investigation.
When asked if he knew there was a black spot of CCTV at the time, Allen replied, “No. “
He said “potentially” that he had known, but if he had, he would have told the staff to move into that area.
Mr. Allen agreed that he knew there was an area of CCTV black spots.
If before May 22, 2017 he had been aware of the black spot area, he said he would have insisted that other people be in this area. “
He agreed that after the closure of McDonald’s, SMG has an idea of what that closure meant in terms of security for City Room.
Mr Greaney QC said, “Would it be moderate to say” this is a domain we want to think about in terms, for example, of whether a user who wants to hurt can simply wait?”
Mr. Allen said, “Yes. “
Mr Greaney said, “Does this ever have knowledge?”
Mr. Allen said, “I don’t think so. “
Mr. Allen stated that he believed that Showsec, as a component of his pre-launch checks on event nights, had gone to this area.
The Salman Abedi bomber waited in the mezzanine domain in a CCTV black dot domain for about an hour before the attack.
Mr Greaney QC said: “If they [Showec] didn’t walk in this area, we have a guy who intends to cause serious damage to this mezzanine for an hour without a physical examination and who is at a black spot. Array. . . have a reaction to this state of events?”
Allen replied, “It’s a missed opportunity, yes, I agree. “
Mr. Allen agreed that it is mandatory to conduct patrols on one occasion that the Ariana Grande concert lasts.
SMG’s specialized security patrols would operate on “dark days”, days without occasions, day and night, and would come with the mezzanine or McDonald’s area, Allen said.
He said they were operating in a “site-wide” direction, but he knew the precise direction they were taking.
Specialized patrols would involve site-based controls in fast areas, he said.
“They had some problems and crawled to say they had gone there, ” said Allen.
He said the checks would have detected a suspicious character.
SMG was bound by contract to carry out the patrols, the investigation said.
“Can you agree that the events, it turns out that the mezzanine has not been reviewed?Mr. Greaney QC.
Mr. Allen said, “Yes, that’s the case.
“At the events, we have Showsec staff to help us in the spaces where the audience allowed us to be. “
Mr Allen’s “mitigation measures” had been put in place.
He claimed that the patrols took a position “until the doors were opened” and then “started back when the public left the building. “
He said: “In those spaces, we put Showec to cover the spaces where it would be.
“I think what we had staff in position to keep an eye on in this area. “
Mr. Allen said control of the facility was with CCTV technicians, a chimney protection officer, and the program’s electricians at times at night.
SMG owns the sand and has never owned the sand, according to research.
He’s a tenant.
Network Rail owns the entire Victoria Exchange complex, the stadium, according to research.
SMG’s daily work “ended at the gates of the arena,” admits Mr. SMG. Allen.
SMG will “provide and operate” a 24/7 security service, adding walk patrols in construction, the terms of a facility control agreement.
Allen said he was running for SMG UK Ltd at the time of the bombing.
Showsec, he said, outsourced to crowd management, the witness said.
In October 2019, SMG merged with an AEG Facilities organization to create ASM Global, which is the organization for which Allen now works and operates the arena.
In 2017, SMG was an organization with many years of delight in the event box, according to the survey.
When asked if he felt striving to make money, Allen replied, “Yes, we were an advertising business and yes, there is a expectation of making money. “
He stated that advertising pressures had no effect on the number of employees running the days of events in the arena.
SMG sometimes recruited and paid British maritime police officers to paint the facts on the sand, according to the investigation.
Allen says advertising pressures have had no effect on decisions to wear protective equipment. Portable scanners were used at some events.
An occasion would be better when scanners were used, Allen said.
The investigation learned that Salman Abedi, a 22-year-old college drop-in.
He fought for a room-to-room access formula at Manchester Victoria station at night.
Paul Greaney QC, a lawyer in the investigation, asked the witness, “How did Salman Abedi control to derail security in the arena that night?
“I think it’s very well incorporated, ” said Allen.
Allen has worked in the past at London Docklands Arena and a stadium in Glasgow.
He moved to Manchester Arena in 2003 as a director of occasions, hired through SMG.
Mr. Allen Assistant Manager General and then General Manager, a position he held in May 2017 and still holds today.
In May 2017, he had 22 years of delight in the special occasions industry.
Your testimony at this level will refer to the security operation in the arena at that time.
About 14,300 more people were in the arena on the night of the bomb and Allen said SMG was guilty for his protection and safety.
According to him, SMG has done its duty until May 22, 2017 and that same day.
Mr. Allen who had a non-public duty for the protection and safety of others there that night.
He asked if he believed he had taken up duty personally.
“Yes, that’s right,” said Mr. Allen.
The president of the public inquiry is now addressing the court.
He says the goal is to continue the investigation of covid-19’s new national blockade.
“We will pay attention to the performances of the main participants,” said Sir John Saunders.
Mr. Allen, today’s witness, now took the oath of office.
Good morning.
Today is the day of the sand investigation.
There’s a witness: James Allen, on behalf of SMG.
Mr. Allen is the manager of Manchester Arena.