Manchester explosion: Video captures moment of bomb blast that killed 22

Dashcam footage captured the moment an explosion ripped through the area outside the Manchester Arena, leaving 22 people dead and 60 injured.

The footage shows a flash of light coming from the arena at the moment a booming sound can be heard echoing around the city.

A couple of seconds after the sound, the camera’s owner Joe Gregory can be heard saying, “No!”

Mancunian Mr Gregory, 22, tweeted the video shot from his dashcam in a car parked close to the arena in the Deansgate area of the city.

He said on Twitter that his girlfriend was in the arena with a friend, but was unharmed.

“If you look towards the left you see the explosion and hear the bang,” he wrote on Twitter.

“I hope to GOD everyone is ok, and so glad Jess and Em are.”

He said before he shared the footage: “Never felt so scared in my life.”

Mr Gregory explained the time stamp says 9.30 rather than 10.30 when the explosion occurred because it was still set to GMT.

He asked: “Why would anyone fake something like this? My girlfriend was inside!”

Other footage shows people desperately fleeing the venue after the explosion, which is being treated as a suspected terrorist incident.

The concert was reportedly a sell-out in a venue that holds 21,000 people.

The dead and injured were taken to five hospitals across the city, with unconfirmed reports from medical staff of victims having “shrapnel-style wounds” and nuts and bolts found strewn across the arena in the aftermath of the explosion.

Witnesses reported hearing a “huge bang” at the venue shortly after the American pop star had finished her set on Monday evening.

Emergency services including armed police and bomb disposal officers flooded the area in the immediate aftermath of the explosion.

Greater Manchester Police said: “This is currently being treated as a terrorist incident until we know otherwise.”

One fan at the concert with his sister described how the explosion happened as fans were leaving the arena.

Majid Khan, 22, said: “A huge bomb-like bang went off that hugely panicked everyone and we were all trying to flee the arena.

"It was one bang and essentially everyone from the other side of the arena where the bang was heard from suddenly came running towards us as they were trying to exit."

The Prime Minister will chair a meeting of the Government’s emergency Cobra committee on Tuesday morning, with all campaigning for the general election suspended.

Unnamed intelligence services in the US have claimed the explosion was the work of a suicide bomber, but this is unconfirmed.