A MOTHER has told of the "longest minutes" of her life waiting for her daughter to come out of the Manchester Arena after the terror attack.

Mary Pilling, from Harrogate, bought tickets for her 15-year-old daughter Alex and a friend to see Ariane Grande at Manchester Arena on Monday night.

Mary and her husband Chris booked a minibus with other parents and children from Alex's school, driven by Sean Singleton, owner of All Travel York.

The couple went for a meal while their children enjoyed the show, before returning to the front of the arena to meet them.

She said: "As we were waiting for them, suddenly the crowd just changed. It turned in a minute to panic, and we could hear people shouting 'there's been an explosion, there's been a bomb', and there was screaming and crying, just hysteria.

"I heard a woman crying 'my kid's inside', and there were hordes of people coming out. There was a lady who had been in a wheelchair getting carried down the steps and a lot of pushing and shoving and panic."

Alex, who saw the performer at the venue two years ago, said: "I knew where I was going and felt safe and fine and suddenly there was a really loud bang that shook the ground and me and my friend clutched onto each other. "No-one started running then, but they shut the doors in front of us and behind us. There were about 100 people shut between the two doorways.

"Suddenly some alarms were going off really loudly, like sirens but from within the building. My friend [who’d been sat elsewhere] called me and asked where we were because they’d been outside for 10 minutes. She started screaming to me to run and get out of the building. At the same time, my friend asked why everyone was starting to run and everyone was shouting and saying ‘there’s been a bomb, there’s people on the floor, there’s blood’.

"We were both really afraid and by the time we got really scared we were outside the building and it was chaos - everyone was in the street. A police van turned up and there were people everywhere just one minute outside after the bang."

Mary said four of the children, who had been sitting high up in the arena, arrived shortly after, but Alex and her friend - who had been in the ground floor seats during the show - were nowhere to be seen. She said she felt "a strong feeling of helplessness" just waiting to see her daughter again.

Alex said: "A police woman came up and asked if we were okay and we weren’t sure how to get to where my mum was because we’d gone a different way. I was still on the phone to my friend who was really upset and with her dad, and he took the phone from her and told me where my parents were, that they were nearby. I looked to the left and could just see my dad looking round for me.

"I was just really relieved. I had a moment of panic that they were in the station because when we’ve been to concerts there before, we’ve met there and they might have been injured. I was really worried about losing my friend, we were holding hands the whole time."

Mary said: "After, I don't know how long, five or 10 minutes, but it felt like a very long time, Alex and her friend appeared and we grabbed them and just ran.

"It was the longest minutes of my life, wondering what's going on, where are they. We had no idea what was going on, it was just panic and I didn't know if something bad had happened. People were pushing people out of the way, it was mayhem."

Mary said everyone on the minibus was scouring social media and news sites to find out what had happened, but it was more than an hour before they found confirmation it had been a bombing.

She said: "The girls weren't hysterical, they were dazed and confused - bewildered.

"We're torn between feeling incredibly thankful and relieved at what might have been, and reading about people who were still looking for their children the same age, and thinking about the stress of what other people have gone through, it's very much what might have been."

Alex added: "It’s one of those things you see on the news lately and don’t think about it happening to you and that’s what really hits you, you’re worrying about your friends and that’s how people must have felt. It’s one of those situations but you think it’s never going to happen.

"I didn’t feel afraid in the moment, because I just knew I needed to get out of there and run but afterwards I was just shaking. I think the scariest thing was waking up to messages from my friends asking if I’m alright."

Mr Singleton said he was waiting with his vehicle when he heard the explosion.

He said: "I was standing outside getting a breath of fresh air, and heard the bomb go off, it was a massive bang. I thought it was a pyrotechnic or something, but thought it didn't sound right. Then I heard kids screaming. There were children coming by, crying, in tears, they didn't know what was happening, where they were going.

"I knew when the ambulance and sirens came how serious it was, and we were ready to go as soon as possible. I wanted to get them out because there could have been a second device."

Sean drove the families home, leaving as emergency services travelled towards the arena, and dropping the families back at their North Yorkshire homes at about 2am.

He said: "You don't know how lucky you are. I feel really sorry for the victims and their families, it's devastating. I didn't really come round to it until this morning, I was flabbergasted."