The death toll from the atrocious explosion at northern England‘s Manchester Arena following an Ariana Grande concert – now being treated by authorities as a suicide bombing – has rises to 22, making it Britain‘s deadliest attack in a decade.
Chief Constable Ian Hopkins, of the Greater Manchester Police, issued a statement confirming the male attacker was among those killed when he detonated an improvised explosive device that many sources are reporting was a nail bomb on account of nuts and bolts being strewn around the foyer.
“We have been treating this as a terrorist incident and we believe that while 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 attacker, I can confirm, died at the arena. We believe the attacker was carrying an improvised explosive device, which he detonated, causing this atrocity.”
He also asked that people refrain from speculating about the attacker’s identity or sharing other unconfirmed details (sadly, there has been plenty of fake news circulating on social media in the wake of the explosion, including a totally unverified ‘video message’ from Islamic State claiming responsibility) because of the “complex and wide ranging” nature of the investigation.
It was about 10.30pm on Monday – just after Grande finished performing, and was safely backstage – when the horror unfolded.
Emergency services received 240 calls after the incident, many from frantic parents desperately trying to locate their missing children.
The more than 59 injured people (medics have described treating wounds consistent with shrapnel injury, which is in line with reports the attacker detonated a nail bomb) were taken to eight hospitals across Greater Manchester.
It’s believed many of the fatalities were caused by a frantic stampede as people fled in terror.
You can read the latest statement from Greater Metropolitan Police in full below:
Latest statement on incident at Manchester Arena @CCIanHopkins pic.twitter.com/LDG1wgX2sT
— G M Police (@gmpolice) May 23, 2017
Grande earlier tweeted her devastation over the terrorist attack, saying she’s “broken”, while droves of celebrities have offered their condolences on social media.
We’ll continue to update this story as more details roll in.
In the meantime, our thoughts are with Manchester. </3
Photo: Getty / Christopher Furlong.
