A Manx teenager has told of the moment that a suicide bomb went off at last night’s Ariana Grande concert in Manchester.

Aaron Moore, 19, a Manx Telecom development technician from Douglas, was in the front row at the sell-out Manchester Arena gig with his girlfriend Lizzie Pope, 18.

He told iomtoday: ‘We were right at the front watching Ariana. She had finished the last song, went back stage and the lights went on. Then there was a massive bang that rumbled across the Arena.

‘It came from behind us in the foyer entrance. We asked the security staff and they thought a balloon had burst near a microphone. But I personally thought it was a bomb.

‘There was a huge crowd, all screaming and scrambling to get out. No one knew what to do.’

Former St Ninian’s High School student Aaron, who is also studying for an HNC in computer systems at University College Isle of Man, said: ‘‘I said to my girlfriend ‘stay low’ in case there was a gunman. ‘Our big worry was that we didn’t want to run to the entrance in case there was another explosion or we would be crushed in the stampede. So we stayed in the middle with the security guards.’

The couple were then escorted to a fire exit and out onto the street outside the Arena.

Aaron said: ‘I saw people slumped up against the wall with police coats over them. At first I thought it was just to keep them warm but then I saw some of them were bleeding quite badly.

‘We never saw signs of the explosion as that was in the front foyer. There were rows of ambulances all coming down the road.

‘To be honest when the explosion went off I knew some people would not make it out alive.’

Lizzie, who is from Formby, Merseyside and moved to the island only last July to work at Old Mutual, had been planning to buy some merchandise in the foyer at the end of the show but luckily didn’t go.

The couple were staying at her mum’s home in Liverpool. There was a long wait while police searched the car park before they could set off back to Merseyside.

They are due home tonight on the fast craft from Liverpool.

Aaron, who lives with his girlfriend in Douglas, said: ‘I’m okay but a bit shaken up. Lizzie is upset. She is a big Ariana fan and just wanted to go that night. She had friends at the concert but they are all safe.’

He added: ‘It makes me not want to go to any more concerts. Perhaps I’m a boring person but things like this never happen to people like me. I would rather be boring and stay on the Rock. It’s horrible - and the worse thing is 22 people never made it out.’