By Bri Zeiberg ’19

On May 22, a suicide bomber attacked the Manchester Arena in Manchester, England leaving 59 people have been injured, and 22 have been killed, amongst those are children. Ariana Grande, an American pop-star, was performing that night at the arena. Jamie Orseck ’19 said she was “just horrified that someone would do that especially somewhere like a concert where young people go to have a nice time and see someone they idolize.”

Fans of Grande listened to the final songs of the show before complete chaos and terror flooded over the venue after a suicide bomber attacked the arena.

The bomb was not located within the arena, but near one of the exits by the box office. At 10:33 p.m. as people were leaving the concert the bomb went off injuring anyone nearby. ]

Hours later it was announced that Salman Abed was the suicide bomber responsible. ISIS later claimed responsibility for the attack, although there is no proof that Abedi was affiliated with the group or if he acted alone. Two days after the attack, three other suspects had been arrested, including Abed’s brother.

“When I found out that Isis had done it [I was] not incredibly surprised, but still felt disbelief that people actually have the ability to perform these actions and upset that people can’t just go to a concert for fun without their life being endangered” Claudia Guetta ’18 said.

Brad Cox ’19, who previously lived in Chester which is about an hour outside of Manchester, said he was surprised by the incident. “It could happen anywhere or at anytime” Cox said, “The motive to hurt innocent children is messed up to say the least. To do it to anyone is messed up.”

Grande was not physically harmed, but she later announced that she is postponing the rest of her “Dangerous Woman” tour. After the incident Grande tweeted,”Broken. From the bottom of my heart, I am so so sorry. I don’t have words.” The Manchester concert was the first of three planned concerts for Grande in the UK.

The attack has been the worst since July 7, 2005 when Al-Qaeda suicide bombers killed over 50 people on London’s transportation system.

“I’ll never be afraid to go to sporting events or concerts because we can’t let people like that control what we do in our lives,” Cox said.

Photo used under the Creative Commons License