PICTURED: JACKIE is reunited with, from left, Rebecca (3); Leah (18 months); and Rachel (8).

A YOUNG mum caught in the horror of Saturday's Manchester bomb outrage thought she was never going to see her loved ones again. Jackie Byrne, from Sutton Leach, and her babysitter, Lindsey Menarry, were part of a party of 10 from St Helens who travelled to Manchester by coach for what should have been a pleasant day out.

The mother-of-three told the Star: "The trip was for a morning's shopping and then we were going to spend the afternoon watching the musical 'Grease.'

"We got off the coach at about 10am and straight away you could tell something was going on. People were shouting and there were crowds everywhere. As we tried to go into the Arndale Centre, all these people started running out and we were told about the bomb.

"Apparently the disposal squad had defused one bomb but said there was another one and no one knew where it was.

"Everyone was just crying and screaming and all I remember thinking was the bomb could go off under us and I might never see my children or my boyfriend and his children again. I have never been so scared."

Fortunately Jackie and 17-year old Lindsey managed to stay together although they were quite close to the explosion. As the blast ripped through the city centre Jackie twisted her neck and tore some of the ligaments.

She added: "It was almost three hours before we managed to get a taxi and by this time, we had completely lost touch with the rest of our party. The pair of us just wanted to get out of Manchester as quickly as possible."

The taxi took them back to Jackie's boyfriend's home where she was reunited with her worried family. She later went to Whiston Hospital where she was fitted with a neck brace for her injury. Both women were also suffering from severe shock which Jackie says she still hasn't recovered from.

"I've been on edge ever since, especially when I hear a noise. I never thought something like this would happen to me but now it has really hit home how important my family and friends are to me."

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