Bomber mows down 22 in Manchester

59 injured as concert of US singer Ariana Grande targeted; several go missing; IS claims responsibility; attacker identified as Libyan-origin British citizen

MANCHESTER: A suicide bomber killed at least 22 people and wounded 59 at a packed concert hall in the English city of Manchester in what Prime Minister Theresa May called a sickening act targeting children and young people. Islamic State, now being driven from territories in Syria and Iraq by Western-backed armed forces, claimed the attack as revenge against "Crusaders".

But Western experts were sceptical, noting it had offered two accounts of the attack partly contradicting each other and the British police version. British police moved quickly, arresting a 23-year-old man in connection with Monday night’s bombing, carried out as crowds began leaving a concert given by Ariana Grande, a US singer who attracts a large number of young and teenage fans. 

The suicide bomber behind the Manchester attack was 22-year-old Salman Abedi, Greater Manchester Chief Constable Ian Hopkins said.

Some reports claim Abedi, also known as Salman Ramadan Abedi, was a Libyan-origin British citizen who was already known to the authorities. He is believed to have travelled to Manchester by train from London, according to two US officials.

Armed officers raided Abedi’s home on Tuesday afternoon, ordering residents indoors as they carried out a controlled explosion. Elsmore Road, where Abedi was registered as living, became the centre of the investigation into Monday’s attack.

In terms of local transportation, the Manchester Evening News reported that the city’s second largest railway station, Victoria, remained closed as a cordon remained in place around the Arena.

In a statement made outside her Downing Street offices after a meeting with security and intelligence chiefs, May said police knew the identity of the bomber. "All acts of terrorism are cowardly," she said.

"But this attack stands out for its appalling sickening cowardice, deliberately targeting innocent, defenceless children and young people who should have been enjoying one of the most memorable nights of their lives."

She said security serviceswere working to see if a wider group was involved in the attack, which fell less than three weeks before a national election.

The northern English city remained on high alert, with additional armed police drafted in. London Mayor Sadiq Khan said more police had been ordered onto the streets of the British capital.

Monday’s attack was the deadliest in Britain since four British Muslims killed 52 people in suicide bombings on London’s transport system in 2005. But it will have reverberations far beyond British shores. Attacks in cities including Paris, Nice, Brussels, St Petersburg, Berlin and London have shocked Europeans already anxious over security challenges from mass immigration and pockets of domestic Islamist radicalism. Islamic State has repeatedly called for attacks as retaliation for Western involvement in the conflicts in Syria and Iraq.

Witnesses related the horror of the Manchester blast, which unleashed a stampede just as the concert ended at what is Europe’s largest indoor arena, full to a capacity of 21,000. 

"We ran and people were screaming around us and pushing on the stairs to go outside and people were falling down, girls were crying, and we saw these women being treated by paramedics having open wounds on their legs. It was just chaos," said Sebastian Diaz, 19. "It was literally just a minute after it ended, the lights came on and the bomb went off."

A source with knowledge of the situation said the bomber’s explosives were packed with metal and bolts. A video posted on Twitter showed fans, many of them young, screaming and running from the venue. Dozens of parents frantically searched for their children, posting photos and pleading for information on social media. "We were making our way out and when we were right by the door there was a massive explosion and everybody was screaming," Catherine Macfarlane told Reuters. "It was a huge explosion -- you could feel it in your chest."

World leaders expressed solidarity with Britain. US President Donald Trump spoke with May by telephone and agreed the attack was "particularly wanton and depraved", the White House said. 

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said it "will only strengthen our resolve to work with our British friends against those who plan and carry out such inhumane deeds".

Singer Ariana Grande, 23, said on Twitter: "broken. from the bottom of my heart, i am so so sorry. i don’t have words."

May, who faces an election on June 8, said her thoughts were with the victims and their families. She and Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of the opposition Labour Party, agreed to suspend campaigning ahead of the election.

Islamic State, while claiming responsibility on its Telegram account, appeared to contradict British police’s description of a suicide bomber. It suggested explosive devices were placed "in the midst of the gatherings of the Crusaders".

"What comes next will be more severe on the worshippers of the cross," the Telegram posting said. It did not name the bomber, which it usually does in attacks it has ordered, and appeared also to contradict a posting on another Islamic State account, Amaq, which spoke of "a group of attackers". That reference, however, was later removed.

"It clearly bears the hallmark of Daesh (Islamic State)," said former French intelligence agent Claude Moniquet, now a Brussels-based security consultant, "Very clearly the aim was to do as much harm as possible, to shock British society as much as possible."

Islamic State supporters took to social media to celebrate the blast and some encouraged similar attacks elsewhere. 

In March, a British-born convert to Islam ploughed a car into pedestrians on London’s Westminster Bridge, killing four people before stabbing to death a police officer who was on the grounds of parliament. The man was shot dead at the scene. In 2015, Pakistani student Abid Naseer was convicted in a US court of conspiring with al-Qaeda to blow up the Arndale shopping centre in the centre of Manchester in April 2009.

Desperate parents and friends used social media to search for loved ones who attended Monday’s concert while the wounded were being treated at six hospitals across Manchester.

"Everyone pls share this, my little sister Emma was at the Ari concert tonight in #Manchester and she isn’t answering her phone, pls help me," said one message posted alongside a picture of a blonde girl with flowers in her hair.

Paula Robinson, 48, from West Dalton about 40 miles east of Manchester, said she was at the train station next to the arena with her husband when she felt the explosion and saw dozens of teenage girls screaming and running away from arena.

"We ran out," Robinson told Reuters. "It was literally seconds after the explosion. I got the teens to run with me."

Robinson took dozens of teenage girls to the nearby Holiday Inn Express hotel and tweeted out her phone number to worried parents, telling them to meet her there. She said her phone had not stopped ringing since her tweet.

"Parents were frantic running about trying to get to their children. There were lots of lots of children at the Holiday Inn."  

Our correspondents add: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Tuesday strongly condemned the explosion that occurred in Manchester, resulting in the death of 22 persons. While sympathising with families of the deceased, the PM said that elimination of terrorism requires concerted efforts and any such act targeted towards innocent people is highly condemnable. He said Pakistan stands in solidarity with the government and people of the United Kingdom against all forms of terrorism. The PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari also condemned the terrorist attack in Manchester and urged the international community to stand up to eliminate terrorism.