We were in one of the cubicles in A&E being seen by a nurse as my wife, Maria Sand had severe stomach pains. At about 1045pm we heard an intercom message on all the speakers saying that there had been a major incident and all available staff had to come and have a meeting. We heard that all the patients who weren’t critical had to be sent home. A nurse came into our cubicle and assured us we weren’t taking up anyone’s space as we needed to be there and could stay. He [the nurse] said that there had been a possible incident and people with gun wounds and stab wounds were on their way to the hospital.

We began to hear the ambulance sirens and then people came in on trolleys - there were a few of them, we were told one was a gunshot victim and the others were stabbings. Doctors and nurses continued to check up on my wife and then we were moved from our cubicle as they needed all of them - I think there are about 16 cubicles. It was very professional but very hectic.

We talked to one nurse who had finished her shift at 10pm and had arrived home as she lived close-by, however she heard the news and decided to come back in to help her colleagues. Another doctor was off-shift but had biked six miles to get back to the hospital. The staff have been amazing, managing to juggle care of the victims and the patients that already had been admitted.