CONCERT CARNAGE

Witnesses describe scenes of horror as at least 22 die in an attack at an Ariana Grande concert

The concert was just winding down when Manchester mother Rachel decided to head home with her daughter. Rachel and her excited 14-year-old were at Ariana Grande’s May 22 Manchester show, part of the singer’s Dangerous Woman worldwide tour, and as the encore played out, she saw an opportunity to beat the rush to the stadium exit. “As we were going out we heard an almighty bang,” Rachel, who did not give her surname, told BBC Radio. “At first I thought we’d missed something in the concert.” But as the pair turned a corner, “there was a horrific stampede of people coming down the steps, people falling on the floor. I grabbed my daughter and we just ran.”

Amid the spectacle of the pop star’s show at Manchester Stadium that night, an apparent bomb explosion killed 22 people, including children, left more than 50 injured and sparked mass fear. Children and teenagers, who only seconds before had been screaming for their idol, now screamed for their lives. Grande, 23, who had just finished her four-set show at the time of the explosion, “is OK,” said her management. “There was a lot of panic,” concert-goer Esme Findlay, 20, tells WHO. “I saw some girls crying and a woman was asking them where their parents were. It was the scariest thing I’ve ever seen in my life.”

The terror was brought about by a sole attacker, police believe. “We are currently treating this as a terrorist incident,” said Greater Manchester Police’s Chief Constable Ian Hopkins. “And we believe the attack was conducted by one man.” CBS reported that victims had “shrapnel injuries,” and NBC Nightly News tweeted that UK officials said that forensic evidence indicated it was a suicide bomber. Said Hopkins: “The attacker died at the arena.”

The explosion occurred just outside the venue around 10.30 PM. The blast “threw me through the first set of doors,” said witness Andy Holy, who was waiting outside near the box office for his wife and daughter. “When I got up and looked around, there were about 30 people scattered everywhere. Some of them looked dead.” Inside the stadium, “Everyone turned and looked, and people started screaming and running out exits and back into the arena,” says witness Lori Templeton, 15. “For the first time in my life, I thought I was going to die.” In the chaos, children became separated from their parents. “We were running away from the arena, but there were people running towards it, mostly women and men who looked like parents,” concert-goer Henry Whittington tells WHO. One of those was Holy, who ran in looking for his loved ones. “When I couldn’t find them ... I looked at some of the bodies,” he told the BBC. “Luckily ... I managed to find them outside.”

Meanwhile, locals mobilised to help others. Taxi drivers turned off their meters to get young people home and a nearby Holiday Inn took in children until their parents arrived. “Mancunians opening their homes to those stranded, and businesses offering free rides,” tweeted Manchester City councillor Bev Craig. “This is the Manchester I love.”

A city that is now mourning the loss of its own on an evening that should have been all about fun. “It was just the perfect night,” says Whittington. “And then it became the worst thing I’ve ever seen.”

“It was the scariest thing I’ve ever seen” —witness Esme Findlay

Police at the scene on May 23. “People were screaming, ‘Bomb! Bomb!’ and there was a lot of panic,” concert-goer Esme Findlay tells WHO.

Many of the audience were young children who had come with a parent. An injured man is helped out of the stadium. At press time, the injured were being treated at six hospitals in Manchester.

WITNESS TO HORROR “People were screaming and running and falling over chairs,” witness Lori Templeton tells WHO. Said concert-goer Kiera Dawber: “There were bodies scattered about everywhere. People were on the floor. We just ran. It was just chaos.”