Manchester Police have confirmed that a serious incident has occurred at an Ariana Grande concert in Machester, United Kingdom, after concertgoers and locals reported hearing an explosion and seeing smoke.
Police statement on incident at Manchester Arena pic.twitter.com/gaKASukx9a
— G M Police (@gmpolice) May 22, 2017
A bomb disposal unit has just arrived outside the Manchester Arena. Can also hear sniffer dogs being brought out of the vans pic.twitter.com/SgTPZxMLyg
— Chris Slater (@chrisslaterMEN) May 22, 2017
I was in the toilet and heard a loud bang just after the concert had finished and people had started to leave.The bang echoed around the foyer of the arena and people started to run. I seen people running and screaming towards one direction and then many were turning around to run back the other way.Security was running out as well as the fans and concert goers. Reports of blood and people injured.In so much shock and panic. You see this on the news all the time and never expect it to happen to you. I just had to run and make sure me and my sister were safe.
A barman the nearby Steven Charles Snooker Club also told The Guardian that he saw a number of injured people on the street – including a woman he claims had a heart attack:
We’ve had a few people in with panic attacks and in all kinds of disarray. We’ve got four girls here – trying to get them sorted to get picked up. There was a gentleman on the floor with his leg all bleeding and woman with blood down one side of her face.We felt something but didn’t know what it was – there was a sound like thunder. One girl had a panic attack and another had streaming tears, a woman had a heart attack just outside.
People are still emerging, shell shocked: a family from Pontefract say they saw a woman stagger out, on open wound exposed all down one leg
— Helen Pidd (@helenpidd) May 22, 2017
Some initial, unconfirmed reports from the scene suggested that the explosions were caused by large balloons. David Richardson, who was at the concert with his daughter, denied these reports in an account to The Independent.
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.
The sound of the explosion was reportedly loud enough to be heard in the apartment blocks adjacent to the venue. Suzy Mitchell, who lives near the venue, told the Guardian:
[I] just heard a huge bang from my bed, came out to the front of my apartments (we’re on the top floor so have perfect view) and everyone was running away in big crowds.The bang was so big I heard it from my room which is at the back of the apartment blocks. Currently lots of emergency services going to and from. But can’t see anything substantial as of yet except fleeing people and lots of cars.
