'We felt the arena shake': Northamptonshire girl describes thousands fleeing in terror after Manchester bombing

Brook Page took this selfie with her friend on the way to the Ariana Grande concert on Monday night.

Brook Page was just about to maker her way out of the 21,000 capacity venue with her best friend on Monday night, when she heard a "massive bang".

The 17-year-old beauty therapist student at Northampton College had been enjoying the Ariana Grande concern and was due to meet her sister, friends and her friend's family at the entrance to block 113 of the huge indoor arena when the noise sounded.

"Everyone screamed and turned around," she said. "We felt the arena shake.

Police arriving at the Manchester Arena on Monday. SWNS.

"We could see everyone on the other side of the arena running away, there was people screaming."

At first Brook, from Milton Malsor, said many felt the loud bang had been caused by a falling speaker or a large balloon. During the final songs of the end of the Ariana Grande gig, several large inflatables had been released into the crowd.

But it quickly dawned on Brook, that something far worse had occurred,

"We just tried to get out of their quickly," she said.

"I was trying to phone my friends, but I couldn't get through.

"I was just trying to keep hold of my best friend to get out as best we could."

Brook remembers seeing blood on the top of the stairwell to the outer ring of the arena, which is populated by T-shirt stalls and bars.

She managed to find her sister and friends at the entrance of block 113 and the group of six made their way to the car.

"It wasn't until we walked to the car and heard someone else's radio that we heard it was a suspected bomb," she said.

Later Brook discovered the group had met barely metres away from where 22-year-old Salman Abedi had detonated the bomb.

Today, having returned to college, she is just thankful the group managed to make it out alive.

She said: "I'm just so shocked anybody would do that to a bunch of young kids and teenagers.

"I saw a lot of really young children there with their mums."

So far 22 people have been confirmed dead following the attack on Monday night, while 63 remain injured.