PARAMEDICS who treated Nicky Reilly minutes after his failed suicide attack said they saw "a patient, not a bomber".

Matt Baker, an emergency care assistant, and paramedic Matt Richardson were sent to the Giraffe restaurant on May 22 after South Western Ambulance Service NHS Trust received a call reporting a male who had fallen and "cut his face".

When they arrived at the Princesshay cafe, they found an increasing number of police and hundreds of nervous members of the public.

Matt Richardson, who was captured on CCTV standing beside a female police officer in front of the 22-year-old, said: "We were almost on scene when we got a call telling us to stand off and wait for police, but there was a police car following us in so we carried on until we were outside the restaurant. We were 10 metres away from the door when we were told there had been an explosion."

As police assessed the situation, the pair focused their attention on Reilly.

Mr Richardson said: "When we got on to the scene we saw a patient, not a bomber.

"He was obviously agitated, but we were just frustrated that we couldn't treat him as we didn't know what chemicals had been used in the device.

"He had been led outside the restaurant and was sitting on one of the chairs so we asked him what he had used. He told us the truth and we had to wait to see how best to handle that chemical before we could treat his injuries.

"We had a good rapport with him, he seemed remorseful and as our patient we did our best to treat him.

"Some people have told us we acted bravely. Others have said we were stupid, but at the end of the day he was our patient and that was all that seemed to matter at the time. It wasn't until after it had all finished that we sat down and thought about what we had just gone through."