City is slowly returning to normal
MANCHESTER: A train station next to the scene of last week’s suicide bombing in Manchester reopened Tuesday for the first time since the carnage in which 22 people were killed, as the city slowly returned to normal.
Manchester-born Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher was to make his solo debut later on Tuesday with a charity concert, the latest in a flood of tributes in Britain’s third-largest city for the victims of last Monday’s concert attack.
“We Will Remember You,” read signs accompanied by heart images and surrounded by floral tributes at Manchester Victoria station as service resumed.
“Tragically taken away. But never to be forgotten,” read a note left by Transport Minister Chris Grayling at a morning ceremony, while Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham wrote: “We will always stand with you.”
“I think it will take a long time to get back to normal. There’s still a weird feeling, you know, armed police, a lot of unease,” said 59-year-old David Keys as he got off a train.
Sharon Glyn, 48, said she felt “goosebumps” as her train pulled into the station, while 29-year-old Andrew Shivas said: “Can’t them win.”
Manchester Victoria station is connected to the Manchester Arena, one of Europe’s biggest indoor venues, by a covered space that was the scene of Monday’s blast, in which 116 people were also injured. let
Most of the victims were young people attending a concert by US pop idol Ariana Grande, which had just finished and parents waiting to meet their children.
Daesh claimed responsibility for the attack. The bomber has been identified as 22-year-old Salman Abedi, a Manchester-born univer- sity dropout of Libyan origin who reportedly fought in the Libyan conflict to topple former dictator Muammar Qaddafi.
Abedi’s brother, Hashem, and father, Ramadan, have been arrested in Libya, where authorities say the two brothers were both Daesh militants.
Fourteen more people are being held in Britain and police have released a security camera image of Abedi carrying a large blue suitcase, appealing for any information about where Abedi might have been with the luggage.