[The concert hall became the scene of carnage after gunmen burst in during a show by the American rock band Eagles of Death Metal and began shooting. That attack — for which the Islamic State later asserted responsibility — killed 89 people and injured hundreds, becoming the deadliest event on French soil since World War II. In all, 130 people were killed that night in coordinated attacks.]
By Griff Witte and Karla Adam
 |
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An
explosion at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England, on May 22
left
at least 22 people dead and around 59 others injured, according
to
police. (The Washington Post)
|
MANCHESTER,
England — The Islamic State
claimed Tuesday that one of its “soldiers” carried out an apparent suicide
bombing in Manchester that killed at least 22 people, including teenagers and
others streaming out of a pop concert.
Greater Manchester Police Chief Constable Ian
Hopkins named the suspected attacker as 22-year-old Salman Abedi but declined
to provide other details.
A senior European intelligence official said
the attacker was a British citizen of Libyan descent. The official said the
suspect’s brother has been taken into custody.
The Islamic State’s claim came as British
investigators intensified their search for possible accomplices and police
teams fanned out across the northern city after the worst terrorist strike in
Britain in more than a decade.
The Islamic State did not give any details about
the attacker or how the blast was carried out late Monday. Its statement was
posted on the online messaging service Telegram and later noted by the SITE
Intelligence Group, which monitors militant websites.
The Islamic State often quickly proclaims
links to attacks, but some previous claims have not been proven.
British Prime Minister Theresa May called the
carnage a “callous terrorist attack.”
“This attack stands out for its appalling,
sickening cowardice deliberately targeting innocent, defenseless children and
young people who should have been enjoying one of the most memorable nights of
their lives,” she said, speaking outside her Downing Street offices, where
flags were lowered to half-staff.
May later visited Manchester, meeting with
local authorities and signing a condolence book honoring the victims.
Queen Elizabeth II, meanwhile, expressed her
“deepest sympathies.”
“The whole nation has been shocked by the
death and injury in Manchester last night of so many people, adults and
children, who had just been enjoying a concert,” she said in a statement
released by Buckingham Palace.
Condemnations also poured in from other
leaders around the world
In Washington, Director of National
Intelligence Daniel Coats said Tuesday that despite the Islamic State’s claim
of responsibility for the Manchester attack, “we have not verified yet the
connection.” He noted in a Senate hearing that “they claim responsibility for
virtually every attack.”
The casualties included children as young as
elementary school students. Police said that among the 59 people injured, a
dozen were younger than 16.
Among those killed, Georgina Callander, an
18-year-old student, was the first victim to be named. British media also
reported that an 8-year-old girl, Saffie Rose Roussos, could have been the
youngest fatality.
“We believe at this stage the attack last
night was conducted by one man,” Hopkins said at a televised news conference.
“We believe the attacker was carrying an improvised explosive device, which he
detonated, causing this atrocity.”
In a later appearance, Hopkins said the
priority for police was to “establish whether [the assailant] was acting alone
or as part of a network.”
During a visit to the West Bank city of
Bethlehem, President Trump pledged “absolute solidarity” with Britain and
called those responsible for the attack “evil losers in life.”
The bombing appeared intended to inflict
maximum bloodshed on the young concertgoers — many in their early teens — who
were making their way out of the Manchester Arena, one of Europe’s largest
indoor venues, with a seating capacity of 21,000.
The blast occurred about 10:30 p.m. Monday,
minutes after pop star Ariana Grande had finished her set and many fans were
gathered in the foyer to buy concert merchandise.
The explosion set off a panic as fans
struggled to flee and parents and teens searched for one another amid the
carnage. Parents who had lost contact with their children posted desperate
pleas for information on social media using the hashtag #ManchesterMissing.
Charlotte Campbell told the BBC that she was
“phoning everybody,” including hospitals, trying to locate her 15-year-old
daughter, Olivia. She last spoke to her daughter on Monday night at the
concert.
“She’d just seen the support act and said she
was having an amazing time, and thanking me for letting her go,” Campbell said
in an emotional interview.
The attack occurred near one of the exits of
the arena, in a public space connected to a bustling train station.
Jake Taylor, a former security guard at the
arena, said its layout makes absolute safety impossible.
“You can’t stop people from getting through
the train station,” Taylor said.
Mark Harrison, who accompanied his
12-year-old daughter to the concert from Cumbria in northern England, said
there were no metal detectors or body checks at the arena’s entrance, though
bags were inspected and items such as water bottles had to be discarded.
“There was definitely a security presence,
but anyone can come through the train station,” Harrison, 44, said.
Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater
Manchester, called it an “evil act” but praised the “spirit of Manchester that
will prevail and hold us together.”
Manchester is “grieving today, but we are
strong,” he said.
On Tuesday evening, a large crowd gathered in
Manchester’s Albert Square for a solemn vigil honoring the victims.
The Monday night attack was the worst
terrorist strike on British soil since 2005, when Islamist extremists bombed
the London subway and a bus, killing 54 people.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said
late Monday that there was “no information to indicate a specific credible
threat involving music venues in the United States” but added that Americans
may see “increased security in and around public places and events as officials
take additional precautions.”
In France, the scene of several terrorist
attacks over the past year, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe called on people to
be vigilant in the face of “a threat which is more present than ever before.”
Organizers of the Cannes Film Festival
denounced the Manchester bombing as an “attack on culture, youth and
joyfulness” and observed a minute of silence Tuesday. Cannes is 15 miles from
Nice, where an attacker driving a truck plowed into crowds celebrating Bastille
Day in July, killing 86 people.
Britain has been on high alert for a major
attack for several years, with authorities saying that a mass-casualty attack
was likely.
Grande, who is wildly popular both in Britain
and the United States, was not injured in the attack. She expressed her sorrow
in a tweet hours after the explosion, saying she was “broken. from the bottom
of my heart, i am so sorry. i don’t have words.”
A father told the BBC that he was leaving the
arena with his wife and daughter when the blast blew him through a set of
doors. Afterward, the man, identified as Andy, said he saw about 30 people
“scattered everywhere. Some of them looked dead.”
Separated from his wife and daughter, he
said, he “looked at some of the bodies trying to find my family.”
He later found them, uninjured.
Karen Ford, a witness, told the BBC that
“there were kids outside, crying on the phone, trying to find their parents.”
The scenes of bloodied, panicked concertgoers
running for safety brought to mind similar images at the Bataclan theater in
Paris in November 2015.
The concert hall became the scene of carnage
after gunmen burst in during a show by the American rock band Eagles of Death
Metal and began shooting. That attack — for which the Islamic State later
asserted responsibility — killed 89 people and injured hundreds, becoming the
deadliest event on French soil since World War II. In all, 130 people were
killed that night in coordinated attacks.
Monday night’s blast came two months after a
speeding driver left four people dead on London’s Westminster Bridge, then
stabbed to death a police officer at the gates of Parliament.
Monday also was the fourth anniversary of the
killing of Lee Rigby, a British soldier who was attacked with a machete on the
streets of southeast London. Two assailants, who were later convicted of
murder, said they were acting to avenge the killing of Muslims by British
soldiers.
In just over two weeks, Britain is scheduled
to hold a national election. Campaigning was suspended Tuesday, and perhaps
beyond. Security has not featured as a prominent part of the debate, although
that may change when campaigning resumes.
Adam reported from London. Souad Mekhennet,
Isaac Stanley-Becker, James McAuley and Rick Noack in Manchester, Paul Schemm
in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and Devlin Barrett, Brian Murphy and Ellen
Nakashima in Washington contributed to this report.
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