Bomb blast kills 22 at Manchester pop concert

At least 22 people were killed in a suspected terrorist attack at a pop concert packed with children in Manchester, northern England, in the worst such incident on British soil since the London bombings of 2005.

More than 59 people were injured in the blast, Greater Manchester Police Chief Constable Ian Hopkins said in a televised statement. The incident happened Monday night outside the 21,000-seat Manchester Arena after a concert by Ariana Grande, a 23 year-old US singer popular with teenagers and children. No one has claimed responsibility.

“We are currently treating this as a terrorist incident until we have further information,” Hopkins said. “We are working closely with national counter-terrorism policing networks and UK intelligence partners.”

“This has been the most horrific incident we have had to face in Greater Manchester and one that we all hoped we would never see.” said Hopkins. “We have been treating this as a terrorist incident and we believe, at this stage, the attack last night was conducted by one man. The priority is to establish whether he was acting alone or as part of a network.”

The blast happened in the middle ofan election campaign, with Prime Minister Theresa May’s Conservative Party and the opposition parties saying they will suspend all activities. It’s the latest ina series of attacks that have traumatised Europe since 2015 and comes just two months after a lone assailant left five people dead outside the Houses of Parliament in London.

May will chair a meeting of the government’s Cobra emergency committee, which brings together ministers and security officials, at 9 a.m. in London.

There are eyewitness accounts of many shrapnel wounds consistent with a nail bomb.

“We are working to establish the full details of what is being treated by the police as an appalling terrorist attack,” May said in an emailed statement. “All our thoughts are with the victims and the families of those who have been affected.”

Taoiseach Enda Kenny said that "the vile acts carried out in Manchester last night are a reminder of the depravity of the views held by the few. Those beliefs have no place in our society."

"The city of Manchester has exceptionally close ties with our country and I extend the solidarity of the Irish Government and all our people to those affected across the UK," he said.

Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald said the gardaí were liaising with their UK counterparts about last night's dreadful events, which she described as a "savage and shocking attack".

"While there has been no change to the security assessment here and no specific information about a threat to us, last night's attack is a reminder that no-one can be considered immune from those whose hatred of our values drives such evil acts. The Garda Síochána, together with their colleagues in the Defence Forces and their international security partners, will continue to take all necessary measures to counteract such deadly threats," she said.

Witnesses told Sky News they heard a loud bang at the end of the performance.

“The concert had finished and we were all leaving and there was an explosion to our left and people started running,” television actress Isabel Hodgins, who was at the show, told Sky. “It smelled of burning and there was quite a lot of smoke as we were leaving.”

The incident evoked memories of the attack in 2015 onthe Bataclan concert venue in Paris, where gunmen mowed down rock fans. The concert-goers in Manchester were even younger, with some witnesses telling UK media that children as young as nine were at the event.

One witness told the BBC that parents were standing on walls screaming for their children after the blast. Hotels in the city took in children while attempts were made to trace their families.

Pictures of missing teens were posted on social media by friends and relatives trying to trace them. The injured were being treated in eight hospitals across Greater Manchester, Hopkins said.

Some concert-goers said at first they thought the explosion was caused by one of the pink balloons decorating the hall. Television footage showed scenes of panic as people scrambled to leave the site.