Rotheram: My relief after hero taxi driver found daughters after Manchester terror attack

Labour mayor Steve Rotheram has spoken of his relief after a taxi driver found his two daughters safely in the aftermath of the Manchester terrorist attack.

Rotheram, elected this month in Liverpool city region, said he would be “forever grateful” to the taxi driver who persevered through clogged roads in order to pick up his children after they had attended the Ariana Grande concert at the Manchester Arena.

The cabbie, from Alpha Taxis, abandoned his car and walked into Manchester to find the girls, aged 19 and 21, are thought to have been hiding in a hotel.

Twenty-two people, including children, were killed in the attack yesterday. A further 59 people are thought to have been injured.

Today Rotheram said described his fears upon hearing of the attack as well as his gratitude to the taxi driver.

“It was one of those horrible moments that I am sure plenty of people have had when they get a phone call,” he told the BBC’s The World At One.

“You freeze, don’t you? Your blood runs cold and you worry about what could happen, would there be a secondary attack? But fortunately we were lucky and our daughters came home safe.”

Rotheram, a close ally of Manchester mayor Andy Burnham, also described how his daughters witnessed “huge panic” in the city and saw victims with blood on their faces.

The two ladies were recovered and Rotherham explained how they got back home as the chaos unfolded.

“We booked for a taxi to pick them up and the taxi driver couldn’t get to where he was supposed to pick them up and, anyway, they had moved, so the taxi driver through a contact number that we had given phoned one of them and walked through the streets of Manchester to go and get them and take them back to the cab which he had left some distance away and then to drive them back safely. I am forever grateful for that show of kindness.”