A SHOPPING trip planned for weeks turned to terror for a family when they were caught up in the huge IRA bomb blast which maimed more than 200 people in Manchester - 13 of them seriously.

Rahima Issat, 19, of Beardsworth Street, Little Harwood, Blackburn, who works in the Lancashire Evening Telegraph's personnel department, arrived in the city centre as the bomb blast rocked the city.

With her were her ten-year-old brother Yusaf and mother Miriam. Her father, Adam, had gone to park the car on the multi-storey in Tibb Lane.

Less than an hour later Yusuf was to become one of the casualties of the IRA blast which has left 13 people in hospital with serious injuries.

Rahima said: "We didn't know what was happening. The windows started breaking all around us, we just thought, 'we are going to die'."

The family had planned the shopping trip as a special treat weeks earlier. But within an hour of arriving in the centre their outing turned to terror.

Rahima said: "We threw ourselves on the floor, everybody else was doing the same. We just lay there with the glass all breaking around us."

The family were on the opposite side of the Arndale Centre from the blast, close to Afflecks Palace, but Rahima said she could see the centre shake as the bomb tremor was felt up to a mile away.

She said: "We didn't know what had happened, we saw all the smoke and then thought it was a big fire.

"It was only as we were leaving the centre someone said there had been a bomb.

"Yusuf was terrified, and he was cut on his foot by some flying glass."

"My mum was so frightened. We were running everywhere.

"People were trying to get in their cars and drive off, but there was nowhere to go because the road was all blocked."

Adam Issat said: "We were so frightened. Once we knew it was a bomb, the next thought was 'what if there is another one?'

"We just wanted to get out of there."

Mr Issat praised police who cleared the area. He said: "They did an excellent job and were very professional."

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