What we know about Monday night’s deadly terror attack.
At least 22 people died and 59 were injured after a suicide bomber detonated an improvised explosive device at a concert by the American pop star Ariana Grande at the Manchester Arena in northern England on Monday night.
Here’s what we know so far:
The blast occurred just before 10: 35 p.m. local time as the concert was wrapping up, according to Greater Manchester Police. The explosion, which happened in the arena’s foyer area, sent panicked fans running. People described a scene of chaos and terror.
Manchester police said this “is currently being treated as terrorist incident until police know otherwise.”
Police confirmed it was a suicide attack.
“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, ” said Chief Constable Ian Hopkins of Greater Manchester Police.
Police believe one man, who has not been named, carried out the attack. No group has claimed responsibility.
A terrorism analyst from the Search International Terrorist Entities (SITE) Intelligence Group said that the Islamic State has celebrated the attack on social media.
No, none of the identities of the people who were killed or wounded have been released. The wounded are being treated at eight hospitals in the Manchester area.
People turned to social media in an effort to help those affected by the attack, offering everything from places to stay and free taxi rides to phone chargers under the Twitter hashtag #RoomForManchester .
Facebook activated its safety check for people in the area to let friends and loved ones know they are OK.
British police set up an emergency number for those seeking information about loved ones or with any information about the attack at (country code +44) 01618569400.
World leaders condemned the attack after news of the incident spread. British Prime Minister Theresa May said her thoughts were with the victims and their families.
President Trump, who is currently on a visit to Israel, condemned the “evil losers” responsible for the attack, which he said preyed on “innocent children.”
He said this “wicked ideology must be obliterated. And I mean completely obliterated. He said “civilized nations must join together to protect human life.”
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was “shocked” by the attack and asked for people to keep the victims and their families in mind.
Grande was uninjured in the attack and is safe, the singer’s record label publicist told the L.A. Times .
“Ariana is OK. We are further investigating what happened, ” said Joseph Carozza, Grande’s publicist with Republic Records, according to The Times.
At 10: 51 p.m. ET Grande sent a tweet saying, “broken. from the bottom of my heart, i am so sorry. i don’t have words.”
Manchester is located about 200 miles northwest of London. It is one of Britain’s largest cities with a population of about 530,000. The surrounding Greater Manchester area has a population of about 2.8 million.
