National counter-terrorism police had to rely on updates from Twitter for nearly two hours after the Manchester Arena attack, the inquiry has heard.

Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu, then the country’s senior national co-ordinator for counter-terrorism, said he first heard about the attack through the husband of one of his senior officers who was a firearms officer on a training course, around 24 minutes after the attack.

The SO15 Reserve, a 24-hour operations centre for national counter-terrorism operations, was still having to rely on Twitter for information at 12.13am, nearly two hours after the attack.

Mr Basu said he thought he spoke to Assistant Chief Constable Debbie Ford from Greater Manchester Police, on the way into Scotland Yard shortly before 1am, but did not take a note because he was driving.

He was also rung on the journey by Detective Chief Superintendent Russ Jackson, who was the head of Counter-Terrorism Policing North-West.

Salman Abedi killed 22 men, women and children when he blew himself up in a suicide bomb attack at the end of an Ariana Grande concert in May 2017.

Mr Basu, now the country’s most senior counter-terrorism officer, was at home when he received a call from his deputy, Assistant Chief Constable Terri Nicholson at 10.55pm on 22 May.

“I think the first call that I have any memory of receiving was Terri telling me that she had been notified by her husband, of all people, so not the rigid command and control protocol but an informal notification that something might be happening in Manchester.”

Mr Basu said Ms Nicholson’s husband was “one of the most experienced counter−terrorism specialist firearms officers in the country” and was taking a training course in the north of England.

“I think they must have been listening to the force radio or heard something happen in that area and he had contacted his wife and said, ‘Don’t go to sleep because it looks like something’s happening’,” Mr Basu.

Shortly afterwards he got a call from Chief Inspector Richard Thomas, the counter-terrorism specialist firearms coordinator responsible for mobilising assets during an attack, who was on the same course as Ms Nicholson’s husband.

At 11.12pm, after a second conversation with Ms Nicholson, Mr Basu recorded that armed response vehicles had been deployed to what was believed to be a series of explosions inside the arena.

He noted that DCS Jackson had “stood up” his counter-terrorism resources.

Despite on-going confusion at the fire and ambulance service, Mr Basu recorded that it was believed there was a “single seat” for an explosion and that “one person alone was involved”.

However, Mr Basu noted at 12.13am that the SO15 Reserve had only a Twitter feed to rely on and he told the inquiry: “It looked like they hadn’t been contacted directly and their only source of information was social media at that time.”

Mr Basu said social media could be a help but added: “It’s a massive hindrance when there’s so much of it that it takes experienced detectives and analysts a long time to go through the material and that obviously could divert resources.”

The inquiry has heard the firefighters did not deploy to the scene of the explosion for two hours and only one paramedic went into the scene of the explosion in the first 40 minutes.

The force duty officer at Greater Manchester Police, who was supposed to notify SO15, was said to be “overloaded” and had to get a junior officer to answer his phone.

Sir John Saunders, the chairman of the inquiry, said: “SO15 had not received the information from the force duty officer directly about the attack, but that doesn’t mean that the FDO may well have understood that the information had got to the people who SO15 would have informed.”

At 12.18am, Mr Basu noted a conversation with DCS Jackson, saying: “An Asian male had entered Victoria Station side of the arena with explosives strapped to him which he has ignited and blown back on to the concourse.

“It’s now believed there are 20 dead and 50 walking wounded. They are young.”

A meeting at around 2.35am was interrupted in Manchester by the senior investigating officer confirming to Ms Ford that a credit card with a name on, which was believed to be associated with the attacker, had been found and the name was Salman R Abedi.

They then discovered that Abedi had blown himself up in the concourse area outside the arena, known as the City Room, which was spotted on CCTV at 4.45am the morning.

The inquiry continues.

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