Dont know than we do know. Phil black is joining was the latest. What do you think about this incident. And im giving our viewers a heads up, these are very early moments, and these reports are from eyewitnesses and its very inaccurate and theres a lot that we dont know. T. Reporter the plirs in manchester are calling this a major incident. We know that it was deadly. We know that whatever has taken place there has claimed lives, there are casualties and fatalities as well. But we dont know the precise number. We can see from witness accounts, from people that have posted to social media, and it looks like a terrifying scene. Almost 20,000 people in this venue, teenagers, perhaps children with parents who went there to watch Arianna Grande perform last night. All of them trying to escape this venue in a very uncontrolled way. So its also possible people have been hurt in that sort of scenario as well. What we have consistently heard from resources on the ground, there was one loud noise, a bang of some kind and that has triggered the fire and chaos that followed. Police are trying to get help to the people who need it so you are urgently. Phil, let me just, a couple of things. Do we know where this sound, whether its a blast, a bang, i have heard it described in different ways, and again, we dont know what caused it. Do we know where in this arena it was . Because the video, which is inside the arena where the concert is, it doesnt seem from the video we have seen that there is any kind of compact area in the arena, did it happen inside the arena or inside the periphery . The video doesnt show any kind of explosion within the arena itself. Believes the blast or the loud noise came from just outside the arena, somewhere in the hallways just outside. He spoke of a loud noise, one loud noise that he heard and in addition some smoke as well. So what were hearing is that its may have taken place, not within the arena itself, but just outside and it seems to have taken place just moments after the concert finished. So we should also point out that at a concert venue like this, bags would be searched. So if it took place outside, its possible that this occurred from someone who was trying to enter. But it does not seem like this occurred inside the arena, with the pictures that were looking at. Reporter indeed, from the pictures and the witnesses we have heard from, it doesnt appear that the incident took place within the arena itself. Its very early days in reporting this, so we do need to be careful. What we do know is that security at these venues for events like this, it is incredibly tight. There are bag searches, there are private security guards at the main entrance to these venues, checking peoples bags, in addition to Police Outside the arena checking crowds. All we can go by is what we have heard from witnesses so far, at least one loud noise, it looks like it was just outside the arena venue itself. But what it has triggered is that wave of panic and fear as some 20,000 young people, mostly young people, i would say, within that venue have desper e desperately tried to get out and escape that space. Were joined on the phone by c nr a cnn producer who is there, what have you learned so far . Reporter i arrived on to the scene approximately an hour after the incident. The police have a heavy presence outside the manchester arena, they have cordoned off the entire area, and theyre obviously assessing what happened and how this explosion took place. To reit tra iit rate, the manch plirs are investigating, they have confirmed that this was an explosion at the Arianna Grande concert, there are a number of fa fatalities, but they have not confirmed the exact number. But this is under investigation. There was a man who was in the front row in the arena when this happened. He told me when it happened, it was a large explosion and it was at the end of the arena, and he actually suffered an asthma attack and was dragged on to the stage by security person net and was evacuated that way. Emergency services are reacting and what they have also done is that the local hotels around the arena, the holiday inn, thats where families are encouraged to go to, because young kids who are at the concert, are being allowed to go in there, theyre being taken in and the plirs are in the process of setting up a line to call to get more information and of course to find out any loved ones who may have been in the arena. Its just about 1 00 a. M. There, about 1 06 in the morning, do you know what time this occurred at . The reports are that it happened around 10 55, 11 00 p. M. Local. Of course well only have those confirmed by the majesty police at some point when they have conducted their investigations. There have been conflicting reporting. Initially there were concerns that there was gun fire and there were two explosions, what the police have said is that there was one explosion, there was one noise in the arena, and that has resulted in several or, well, i cant give you a number because the police havent given one, but there are numerous serious injuries and they have also confirmed that there are fatalities and we are waiting on police to confirm how many that is. Just to be clear, youre saying people have been encouraged to go to local hotels, im told cabs are taking people out of the area for free because police want people to leave the area. Often the police would want to try to keep everybody somewhat nearby so they could interview people and see if there was anybody who was involved in this in any way who may still be there, but obviously, in an incident like this, with a venue of some 20,000 people, people have fled in all directions, so thats not an option . Reporter yes, police will do their best to gather as much information as they can, but you know how vital it is in any form of attack, that the right information is gathered from the eyewitnesses, from people on the ground. So as many people who are either being treated or being taken to the local hotels, the police are doing their best to get a hold of these people and get as much crucial information as they can. Reporter both pamela brown and i have been talking to u. S. Officials who have been briefed on the investigation, they have been told by people on the scene, that there was an explosion that occurred outside the venue, that possibly caused a stampede, a sort of rush of people out of the arena that may have caused some of these injuries. Officials, its very preliminary, and theyre just starting to get some of the briefings, but it does appear there was an explosion, as of right now theyre looking at maybe terrorism, but nobody has said what caused this, but they do believe this was an explosion that caused people to run out of the arena which probably caused some of the fatal injuries. So its not clear when you say the explosion outside of the arena, there had been one eyewitness who said that possibly something near the box office, but its not clear if it actually was in the out if rim of the arena or out on the street, youre not exactly sure . Thats exactly right, anderson, so it could have been on the outer perimeter, because you would think that security would be difficult for someone to bring any kind of bomb or explosive material into the arena, so it looked like it was on the outer perimeter and that caused the stampede, the rush, again, this is just happen, and a lot of the officials who are on scene are telling us that theyre still trying to piece it all together, trying to figure out exactly what happened here. And given that this now has happened several hours ago, if this had been a blast inside that arena, not only in the video were looking at right now, would we probably see some sort of an impact zone, given that its 20,000 people, many of whom are at the end of a concert, there would probably be video inside whon this occurred, so given that we have none of that video, well have to have cctv operators to find out exactly what the cause of this explosion was. Theyre trying to figure out what occurred inside. We probably would have seen smoke, perhaps some more kind of destruction inside. I have talked to someone who did see the explosion occur on the perimeter. As well as, phil, as you work both the cia and the fbi, you know, for news organizations, off the reports that we get, eyewitness reports turn out to be inaccurate, because three or four people say they heard multiple blasts, but what thigh really heard was the same blast, or they saw one gunman. Im sorry, actually, phil black, lets go to you, are you hearing any public statements from British Police . No further update from their initial reports, which were simply a significant incident, reports of an explosion, asking people to stay away, emergency workers are trying to get in there. What youre talking got is absolutely true, we dont have a sense of precisely what caused this consistently now, i think were hearing from witnesses that that was one large blast, we first heard there was more, but increasingly, were learning from people on the ground that there was one loud blast. You have made the point from the video we have seen inside the eastern, theres no sign of detonation in there, no smoke or point of blast. But what you can see is the terror, as people try to get out of there in one large huge crush. Manchester police have just confirmed 19 deaths have been confirmed, 19 fatalitiefatalitid 55 people have been injured, again, you saw that long line of ambulances heading toward the eastern. So this is the first actual confirmation of fatalities, 19 confirmed dead, 55 people injured so far. Steve hall, you work with the and im just being told the explosion was at 10 35 p. M. , 10 35 p. M. Local time. It is now 1 13 a. M. Local time. So this was some three hours, almost yeah, just about three hours ago. Steve hall, from your work at intelligence over the years, in terms of the investigation, in these early hours, with all these conflicting reports coming in, how difficult is it for people inside this arena to sift through eyewitness accounts . Yeah, anderson, especially in the early going, its extremely chaotic u the police and Law Enforcement obviously have a lead, not just in the early steps of the investigation, to try to determine was it a terrorist attack, could it have been Something Else, but also just to triage the situation, to make sure that people who are injured get taken care of. Its basic cloud control, and also as you mentioned earlier, trying to make sure that if there are key witnesses that those people remain at least reachable in the future. Whats going on behind that in 2er78s of the Intelligence Service pieces s that youve got all the different disciplines, the human intelligence, going back over recent intelligence, was there any indication, did we miss something . And is there any indication, that this is just the first of perhaps a series of attacks, some of the collection stuffs become terribly important, when Intelligence Forces are trying to determine if there are other indications that would give Law Enforcement and the government indications that there may be Something Else coming in the future. It takes time, the intelligence piece, you have to collect it and analyze it. But in the coming hours, you can be sure that the brits are going to be working hard, and theyre also going to be cooperating with other western Intelligence Services, have you guys heard anything, what can you guys bring to the table to see if there are additional facts, and try to get to the bottom of the facts that have already occurred. Security a at an event like this is going to be tight. The security when you have any large event, and this is a good sized event, but especially for even larger things, the cooperation between the intel guys and the Law Enforcement folks is critical because you have concentric circles of ku security. So the initial reporting sounds consistent, if it was a terrorist attack or whoever the attacker was, got through the initial stuff, got closer, but when it became impossible to go further, probably decided to detonate an explosion, thats all speculation, but thats whats happened in the past when you have these concentric circles around an event like this one. Were told that this event took place around 10 35 p. M. Were now at 1 15 a. M. How long does an investigation take, how many hours does it take before a greater picture is known, before cctv cameras, britain has an awful lot of cameras on the streets, a lot of eyes everywhere. London itself as well as most other british cities and the location in the uk, have a very, very pervasive coverage capability. Thats a good news, bad news story. Its likely that there you have to process that, and you have to do it in a timely fashion. I cant remember how long, but a considerable amount of time before the video of that boston bombing attack that yielded intelligence that was actionable. Its definitely going to be a long night for both the Law Enforcement and intelligence folks over in the uk. And phil black, for ouk poli have confirmed that 19 are inju fatalities and 50 injured. Most of those people have been taken from the scene, we saw those ambulances leaving from or to the venue. Ythe figures that were hearing from the police, at least 19 People Killed and 50 wounded. And as we have been talking about, this is an Arianna Grande concert, these are children, teenagers and families, those were the people that were caught up in this as they left the venue shortly after words. And police say this is currently being treated as a terrorist incident, until police know otherwise. I guess you can say thats pretty standard in a sense, but what theyre not doing is speculating, but theyre assuming the worstcase scenario. Getting the First Responders there. But also trying to determine to what extent there could be a further threat there at the location or perhaps in other places as well. So police will be in the process of locking that players down and investigating thoroughly to be absolutely sure that the threats to people there and to the Emergency Services and First Responders who are working there that that threat has in fact passed and theres no possibility of further live there as well. And steve hall, this does present challenges for Law Enforcement, when you have an arena with 20,000 people, and theres been some sort of explosion outside, local authorities on the scene in that moment are faced with the idea of, i assume, do they just try to get everybody out of the venue, for fear there may be more inside, or is having 20,000 people exit a venue, does that make them potential targets of someone else involved in this incident waiting outside. In my experience working with Law Enforcement, mostly foreign Law Enforcement, not u. S. Law enforcement, in cases like this, theyre going to determined if there are other devices that have not been detonated. That was true in the st. Petersburg bombing in russia, police did find another device in another metro car. I think the key thing for Law Enforcement is to clear the year to make sure that there are no other risks that could do further damage at that particular site. But its extremely chaotic, they are going to want to try to be in contact with people to get key and critical information that will help unravel this, but theres so much data out there right now, that theyre trying to pull down and make sense of it. Its going to be at least a number of hours before either the intelligence or Law Enforcement folks have a better idea of what happened. Sam, can you explain what you heard and if you saw anything . Reporter yes, we had an extremely loud banging, nothing like i have ever heard in this venue before. And as we were just talking, we had seven ambulances exit the metro station, with lights and sirens flashings, really rushing down to the arena, im not sure what happened, but a large number of ambulances have just left the venue. Im currently looking at a road block, theres at least 25 ambulances positioned on the pavement, will be just literally sitting there waiting. Theres five or six fire engines that i can see, all with the crews standing by, theyre waiting to be give on the nod again to just go. A very, very large police presence. I dont know if you can hear the sir sirens, theyre kicking up again. It seems to be coming in waves, all the convoys, none of the vehicles seem to be moving on their own, they seem to be five or six deep at any one time. The five that are running into the fire station now, im not too sure whats happening there, its just absolutely mental at the moment. Phil, how far from this arena are you . 200 meters from the arena, and im about 100 meters away from the Central Station fire station, which is a very large fire station. The Rapid Response there as well. Sam, have most of the people who were in the arena, were told some 20,000 people were there. Are they gone from the area now . Yeah, the area, still is very quiet, its very quiet for this area. After the first wave of sirens, and initial evacuation, it was filled with cars, the roads were actually bedlam, people actually going through red lights, it was very much families, kids, moms and dads. And it looks like the Emergency Services did a real good job of monitoring that traffic, because the traffic jam was just about fiver minutes, now everything is still. We have some helicopters hovering extremely low. Sam, i appreciate you talking to us and i appreciate your clear head in describing all that youre seeing now. Freelance photographer joel goodman is also on the phone joining us, i understand you arrive at the scene, can you tell me what kind of explosion it was and what you saw and heard . I think got here quite early, to be honest. Its hard to say, but when arrived, there was quite a few sort of walking wounded. People had quiet severe injuries. And very quickly they pushed cordons back further and further, obviously trying to keep the area clear so they can work safely in there, but i can probably give you an exact time. Hang on a second. We understand the blast itself took place at 10 35 p. M. Thank you, thats more than i know. I got here at 11 20. You said you saw a number of walking wounded, people with injurie injuries. I dont want to get into too much detail. But the nature of the injuries, was there anything