Police and ambulances responding to the Southport attack were initially sent to a “rendezvous point” a mile and a half from the scene of the stabbings for their own safety, the inquiry has been told.
The decision by the control room supervisor was said to be in line with standard police protocols.
Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Stancombe, seven, were killed at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class on 29 July last year by Axel Rudakubana, who was later jailed for a minimum of 52 years.
The first 999 call from teacher Leanne Lucas, who had herself been badly injured at 11.46am, stated there was a “boy with a knife” who had stabbed “numerous persons”, there were around 25 children, and there were “numerous casualties”.
Chief Inspector Andrew Hughes, Merseyside Police force incident manager, said the decision was made “to gather resources before I could make a decision on what was going to happen at the scene”.
John Goss, counsel to the inquiry, said that it might not be possible to “achieve an emergency response time” because officers “may need to hold back due to the level of risk”.
Five minutes later, Mr Hughes overruled the decision after deciding that firearms officers were “a significant distance away” and there was an “immediate duty to protect life”.
A second call had come in stating that an eight-year-old child had been stabbed, who was awake and breathing but another child was not breathing.
Mr Hughes sent unarmed police to the Hart Space to “approach with caution and assess the situation”, adding: “If safe, deal.”
“My overriding concern was article two, right to life,” he told the inquiry, referring to the Human Rights Act, and adding: “We needed to deploy officers straight to scene.”
The first officer to attend, Sergeant Greg Gillespie, diverted to the Hart Space before arriving at the rendezvous point at Southport police station.
He did not arrive until 10 minutes after the first emergency call but that was said to be within the designated response time to an emergency incident.
He entered the building less than a minute later, armed only with a baton and pepper spray, accompanied by another officer who arrived with a Taser.
The two officers detained Rudakubana, who by then had fatally stabbed the three girls.
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Alice and a number of other girls were being treated at the scene by members of the public.
Heidi Liddle and a young girl were still in the building, hiding in the toilets, after the youngster ran in the wrong direction and was rescued by Ms Liddle.
An ambulance driver followed Sgt Gillespie, although they had been told to go to the rendezvous point and was joined by colleagues.
However, the inquiry was told that police did not tell North West Ambulance Service (NWAS), the same service that dealt with the Manchester attack, that it was safe to approach the scene until 12.06pm.
Mr Hughes accepted that it had been a long time.
He also told the inquiry that he did not declare Operation Plato – the response to a marauding terrorist attack – in case it slowed down the response of the emergency services, who would be forced to stay back from the scene and wait for specially equipped colleagues to arrive.
“I am satisfied that it was the correct decision not to call Plato. It would have slowed the police response down,” he said.
“I would have had to brief other assets, zone the location, and restrict people going into the ‘hot zone.’ So, I am 100 per cent satisfied not to declare Plato was the right decision.”
The speed of the decision-making at Southport contrasted with the Manchester Arena bombing when ambulance crews were held back from the scene and firefighters did not arrive for more than two hours.
Mr Goss said there was “learning from the Manchester Arena inquiry that in some situations it may be appropriate even when there is, for example, a bladed weapon threat to deploy unarmed officers forward with caution”.
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The inquiry also heard that when a taxi driver rang in, 50 minutes after the attack, to say he had taken the killer to the scene, they were able to identify his home address.
A check of the police record at 1.04pm recorded: “Check of this address. There is a male, Axel Rudakubana, warning marker for carrying knives.
“He has been logging on to school websites which involve mass shootings. He talks about guns and beheadings.”
Mr Hughes said that if they had received a call from Rudakubana’s father a week earlier, when he feared his son was planning to go to his old school with a knife, they would have sent officers to his home but had no powers to confiscate any weapons in the house.
He said: “It would be effectively trying to engage through the parents and say, ‘we want you to get those off him and hand them in,’ and probably making sure that that was in fact done.”
The inquiry continues.
