Ariana Grande Manchester Concert Ends in Explosion, Panic and Death -
By RORY SMITH and SEWELL CHANMAY 22, 2017
ISIS has claimed responsibility for the deadly explosion at an arena in Manchester, England,
where the American pop singer Ariana Grande had been performing on Monday night.
MANCHESTER, England — An explosion that appeared to be a suicide bombing killed at least 22 people on Monday night
and wounded 59 others at an Ariana Grande concert filled with adoring adolescent fans, in what the police were treating as a terrorist attack.
“Everyone tried to push people up the stairs,” Ms. Ford recalled, adding
that in the chaos, people tried to push past a woman in a wheelchair as children screamed.
At least one explosion went off in the foyer of the arena, according to the British Transport Police, the force
that protects the Manchester Victoria train station next to the arena.
Panic and mayhem seized the crowd at the Manchester Arena as the blast reverberated through the building, just as the show was ending
and pink balloons were dropping from the rafters in a signature flourish by Ms. Grande, a 23-year-old American pop star on an international tour.
“I was trying to tell people to calm down.” She said the masses of people trying to flee created a perilous situation: “We were being crushed.”
Outside, Ms. Ford said, parents awaited children who had attended the concert, checking their smartphones in a panic.
