'Suicide Bomber' Strikes at Manchester Arena: 19 People Are Killed And 50 Injured In Terrorist Attack As 'Nail Bomb Near The Exit' Explodes

At least 19 people are dead and 50 more injured after a suspected suicide bomber targeted children leaving a packed pop concert at Manchester Arena last night. Witnesses told of nuts and bolts tearing into young concert-goers when the blast was detonated in the foyer area between the arena and the next-door Victoria station just after the Ariana Grande gig ended. 

Horrifying footage showed petrified children leaping over chairs and barriers as they desperately tried to escape the 21,000-seat venue, which led to a stampede. Two US officials have said it was a suspected suicide bomber. Armed officers surrounded the venue and bloodied casualties were seen being stretchered out of the concert that resembled a 'war zone'. At 3am Ian Hopkins, chief constable of Greater Manchester Police, said they were treating it as a 'terrorist incident' and that the injured were being cared for at six hospitals.


'That sound, the blood and those who were running around clueless with body parts and bits of skin missing will not be leaving my mind any time soon or the minds of those involved.'
Gary Walker, from Leeds, was with his wife in the foyer waiting to pick up his two daughters who were at the concert.
He said: 'I was waiting for the kids to come out. We heard the last song, and quite a few people were flooding out and then suddenly there was a massive flash and then a bang, smoke.
'I felt a bit of pain in my foot and my leg. My wife said, "I need to lie down". I lay her down, she'd got a stomach wound and possibly a broken leg.
'I was about three metres from the actual explosion. I am surprised I got away so lightly.'
He added his wife was taken out of the building on a table used as a 'makeshift stetcher'. 

Mr Walker said the explosion was by the door in the foyer, next to the merchandise, and that glass and metal nuts were left on the floor. 
He told the Star: 'The nuts must have been packed in the device that's exploded - there's nowhere else they could've come from.'
His daughter Abigail, who was still in the auditorium with sister Sophie at the time of the explosion, said: 'I had to make sure I had my sister. I grabbed hold of her and pulled hard.
'Everyone was running and crying. We were just trying to figure where everyone was. It was absolutely terrifying.'
Abigail and Sophie contacted their parents by mobile phone, a moment Mr Walker described as 'fantastic news'.

David Richardson was at the gig with his daughter Emily, 13. He said: 'The lights came on after the gig and people were starting to leave. 

'As I turned to the left there was an explosion. It was about 40ft behind us near one of the exits. 
'We just thought it was people messing about then it happened again. Another explosion sounded.
'Then we saw the smoke. Everyone just fled. Some people were injured. We saw blood on people when we got outside. People were just running all over the place.
'People have said it was a speaker or balloons but it wasn't. It was explosions.' 
Another man who took his daughter to the gig said: 'Ariana said: "Bye bye Manchester!"
'The lights came on then there was two big noises and people started running and shouting.
'We got in a lift to go up to the next floor to the exits. When the doors opened I saw blood on the floor and two injured people.
Blood all over their faces. A lot of people were in shock.' 
Eyewitness Sasina Akhtar said: 'She [Ariana Grande] did her last song, we were in the lower tier and there was an explosion behind us at the back of the arena. 
'We saw young girls with blood on them, everyone was screaming and people were running. There was lots of smoke.'

Connor Rohan, 23, was with friends at the gig and said he heard bangs followed by 'deafening screams'.
He said: 'It was just panic and people running. No one knew what was going on and there was an awful lot of screaming.'
Jonathan Yates, 24, from the Wirral, who attended the gig, told MailOnline: 'The concert had finished and the lights came on almost instantly. 
There was a bang, a weird bang. There were lots of balloons but I thought to myself that can't be a balloon, that's not normal.
'We were sat on the floor level and it came from the higher seats, people were running and screaming. 
'Everyone stopped and I turned to my friend and said 'we need to run'. Everyone was running and screaming and then when we got out it felt a bit more OK. 
'I heard five or six bangs that sounded like gunshots. When we got outside people were outside, crying and on their phones. 
'You don't think it's something that's going to happen when you go...it was such a nice, fun concert.'  

Via - Dailymail