LOYAL FAN TO THE END
Sadistic suicide bomber uses pop gig to murder innocent children
THE first victim to be named after the Manchester terror attack was an Ariana Grande super-fan who met the singer two years ago. Georgina Callander, 18, had tweeted Grande before a previous concert: “Can (sic) wait to see you on the dw tour, its gonna kill me”. A suicide bomber at the concert killed 22 people and injured at least 59, many of them children.
A SADISTIC suicide bomber has used the innocence of a pop concert to kill 22 people and injure at least 60 others in the latest sickening terror attack in Europe.
The monster blew himself up in the foyer of megastar Ariana Grande’s show at Manchester Arena, unleashing a deadly blast of nails, bolts and projectiles which ripped through the 20,000 crowd of mostly youngsters leaving the arena.
The explosion occurred at 10.33pm on Monday night.
And police have confirmed a man had detonated an improvised explosive device, sparking chaotic scenes, with panicked concert goers screaming as they ran for the exits, climbing over chairs and barricades as they looked for their parents.
Dozens more were left dead or seriously injured as the nail bomb tore off limbs, stripped clothing from bodies, and caused appalling shrapnel wounds.
Nine hours after the attack, Greater Manchester Police confirmed the death toll had reached 22. It was not clear last night if this included the unidentified bomber.
Photographs on social media taken from outside the venue looking in through the doors showed bodies laying on the floor on the foyer, while outside, dozens of ambulances transported bleeding and shocked victims to six hospitals across the Greater Manchester area. Some had suffered crush injuries in the stampede to escape.
Parents unable to contact their children tweeted heartbreaking messages trying to find them, while police rushed dozens of terrified children and young people into a nearby hotel to protect them and try to reunite them with their families.
The attack is the first mass-casualty terrorist attack on British soil since the July 2005 bombings of three London underground trains and station, and a double-decker bus, which killed 52 people.
Politicians immediately suspended campaigning for the June 8 general election, with Prime Minister Theresa May confirming police were treating the incident as an act of terrorism.
“We are working to establish the full details of what is being treated by the police as an appalling terrorist attack,’’ Ms May said.
“All our thoughts are with the victims and the families of those who have been affected.’’
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn also expressed his condolences and said “the whole country will grieve for those who lost their lives’’.
Counter-terrorism experts descended on Manchester to lead the investigation, and police cordoned off the area around Manchester Arena, urging people to stay away.
Pop princess Grande, whose fans are mainly little girls and teenagers, was not injured. “Broken. From the bottom of my heart, I’m so so sorry. I don’t have words,’’ she tweeted. Her manager Scooter Braun said: “Our hearts are broken (for) … the lives of children and loved ones taken by this cowardly act.’’
The North West Ambulance Service said it had taken 59 casualties to hospital and “treated a number of walking wounded on scene’’.
No one had last night claimed responsibility for the attack, with the official social media accounts of Islamic State and al-Qaeda remaining silent. Unofficial Islamic State-supporting social media accounts celebrated the bombing, describing it as a “successful and surprising blow’’ to Britain.
Greater Manchester Police’s Chief Constable Ian Hopkins said the first reports of the explosion came at 10.33pm. “We are currently treating this as a terrorist incident until we have further information,’’ he said.
Three hours after the bomb blast, police conducted a controlled detonation of an item found in the nearby Cathedral gardens but it turned out not to be a suspicious package. Terrorism police and intelligence agents have descended on Manchester, along with hundreds of police, paramedics and firefighters, and armed police are patrolling the airport and the centre of Manchester, a city of 500,000 people located 260km north of London.
It is England’s second-biggest urban area, which has a population of 2.5 million. Manchester Arena is a large, indoor-arena situated next to the Manchester Victoria train station, which was immedi- ately closed down by police in the wake of the blast. Locals came out into the streets with bottles of water, offering assistance, use of mobile phones and overnight accommodation. Taxi drivers transported distraught teenagers home for free.
The cowardice of the attacker was met by the bravery of the emergency services and the people of Manchester UK Prime Minister Theresa May