From the archive: Bombing at the Ariana Grande concert in England - lessons learned from the police response

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On today's episode we're revisiting the story of the terrorist bombing at the Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England in 2017. A suicide bomber detonated a backpack bomb loaded with nails just after the concert ended, killing 22 concertgoers and  injuring hundreds more. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack.

Our guest today, Amanda Coleman, served as the lead press officer for the Greater Manchester Police during that incident.  That agency managed the initial response, which quickly escalated to a national incident with Cobra activation at 10 Downing Street. (Cobra is the UK government's highest level of government response to an incident, and includes the Prime Minister and key cabinet secretaries.) Amanda shares with us her experiences managing the communications team and facing the many unexpected challenges associated with a terrorist attack in her community.

Amanda has published two books on crisis communication strategies and more routine communication strategies. You can purchase those books at Amazon here.

This episode originally aired in June 2024.

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