Brother describes moment his sister was killed in Manchester Arena blast

Inquiry told teenager Megan Hurley was only three metres from suicide bomber

Salman Abedi, filmed here on security camera, went on to detonate his rucksack bomb, killing 22 people. AFP

The brother of a victim of the Manchester Arena terrorist attack has relived the moment his sister was killed as she took the full force of the blast only seconds after entering the room.

The Manchester Arena Inquiry is hearing evidence about the moments leading up to the deaths of 22 people who were killed at an Ariana Grande concert when suicide bomber Salman Abedi detonated a bomb in his rucksack in May 2017.

On Monday, the inquiry heard about the moments before the death of 15-year-old Megan Hurley.

She had attended the concert with her brother Bradley after being dropped off by their parents.

The inquiry heard the siblings had left the concert after the encore, had been in the City Room for only five seconds and were standing a mere three metres from Abedi when the bomb went off.

"Bradley recalled everything going white and felt heat come over his whole body, he was seriously injured and was not able to get up," said Sophie Cartwright QC, counsel to the inquiry.

"He knew from looking at her she had died, she didn’t appear to be breathing. He tried to detect a pulse but couldn’t and knew he was helpless to save his sister.”

He then used her phone to call his father as medics tried to revive her.

The inquiry then heard of the heart-breaking moment when his father shouted "come on Megan, love" before officers said there was nothing more they could do.

Sir John Saunders, chairman of the inquiry, said it appeared everything that could have been done for Megan was done. She suffered multiple "unsurvivable" injuries, a postmortem concluded.

The Manchester Arena inquiry is examining the circumstances of the attack and whether any opportunities to prevent it were missed.

Abedi, 22, died after detonating the explosive in a foyer of the arena at the end of the concert.

His younger brother, Hashem Abedi, was convicted last year on 22 counts of murder, one count of attempted murder and one count of conspiracy to cause an explosion.

He was sentenced to jail for a minimum of 55 years.

The inquiry continues.