Explosion at Manchester (UK) Pop Concert, Fatalities

Alessandra Kelley

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https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news...olice-explosion-ariana-grande-concert-england

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news...arena-ariana-grande-concert-explosion-england

Police dealing with a “serious incident” in Manchester have confirmed a “number of fatalities” amid unconfirmed reports of an explosion.

Officers said people were also injured in the incident and warned people to stay away from Manchester Arena while they dealt with the issue. Officers did not release any further details on what has happened. A concert by the American pop singer Ariana Grande was being staged at the time.
 

nighttimer

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CNN presently has the casualty count at 19 and 50 injured.

We can probably safely hazard a guess this was no accident.
 

Alessandra Kelley

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cmhbob

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At least one freelance writer is seeing his career implode over his tweet.

David Leavitt tweeted "MULTIPLE CONFIRMED FATALITIES at Manchester Arena. The last time I listened to Ariana Grande I almost died too." He sent that at around 6 PM Eastern time, and it took him until 9:30 to figure out that it was in horrid taste and actually delete it. Then again, he said he deleted it "because so many people asked." His bio claims he freelances for "CBS, AXS, Yahoo!, Examiner, & etc." According to the tweet stream, some of those outlets have started pulling his content.

There's always one somewhere.
 

Bacchus

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I have just seen the news.

22 fatalaties now.

What an unbelievably horrendous thing.

As Ariana Grande tweeted - I don't have words.
 

frimble3

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I have friends near Manchester - music fans. I called to check, they didn't go, they're fine, but shaken. They had been considering it, but figured their daughter was to young to really enjoy it.
But, oh, all those other people, and their children.
 
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Taylor Harbin

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Thoughts and prayers to our English cousins. I just met a man from Manchester over the weekend who was visiting from Seattle. Gave him a tour around our historic site. Simply terrible.
 

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It's been a while since anything outside London was attacked... Sigh.

Anyone posting exaggerated / embellished / fake news about this really needs to be either (physically) banned from posting, or, they need to be in the middle of it all. Seriously: I might understand the bandwagon mentality, but that's no reason to do it.

Manchester. Grr. Sigh.

Frimble, I'm glad to hear your friends and their daughter are fine. But yes, the others.
 

regdog

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My sympathies to all those affected. What a horrific tragedy.
 

EMaree

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Sending all my love to Manchester. I visit there regularly for work, so it's been very hard to follow the news today.

They deliberately targeted young women, parents with kids, and gay men. That's the core demographic for the gig.

An utterly reprehensible act.
 

William Haskins

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Salman Abedi named as the Manchester suicide bomber - what we know about him

The suicide bomber who killed 22 people and injured dozens more at the Manchester Arena has been named as 22-year-old Salman Abedi.

Born in Manchester in 1994, the second youngest of four children his parents were Libyan refugees who came to the UK to escape the Gaddafi regime.

His parents were both born in Libya but appear to have emigrated to London before moving to the Fallowfield area of south Manchester where they have lived for at least ten years.

They had three sons in total and a daughter, who is now 18-years-old.

Abedi grew up in the Whalley Range area, just yards from the local girl's high school, which hit the headlines in 2015 when twins and grade A pupils, Zahra and Salma Halane, who were both aspiring medical students, left their homes and moved to Isil controlled Syria.

There were unconfirmed reports in Manchester that the whole family apart from the two elder sons recently returned to Libya.

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/05/23/salman-abedi-named-manchester-suicide-bomber-know/
 

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The messages appearing on twitter about missing youngsters is heart breaking. I can't imagine what these families are experiencing.
 

WriterDude

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I can't bear to read about it. I checked in with my Mancunian mates who, thank fuckly, are not caught up in this. This can happen anywhere, anyhow, anywho. I find I am letting myself worry that this could happen to us if we go to a concert, at this Arena, as we have before, but it could be anywhere. Can't let these twisted fucks diminish the freedoms we've paid dearly to enjoy.

I look at this, try to rationalise it, figure it out, but all I got is WTF WTF WTF.
 

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The suicide bomber who killed 22 people and injured dozens more at the Manchester Arena has been named as 22-year-old Salman Abedi.

Born in Manchester in 1994, the second youngest of four children his parents were Libyan refugees who came to the UK to escape the Gaddafi regime.

His parents were both born in Libya but appear to have emigrated to London before moving to the Fallowfield area of south Manchester where they have lived for at least ten years.

They had three sons in total and a daughter, who is now 18-years-old.

Abedi grew up in the Whalley Range area, just yards from the local girl's high school, which hit the headlines in 2015 when twins and grade A pupils, Zahra and Salma Halane, who were both aspiring medical students, left their homes and moved to Isil controlled Syria.

There were unconfirmed reports in Manchester that the whole family apart from the two elder sons recently returned to Libya.

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/05/23/salman-abedi-named-manchester-suicide-bomber-know/

No. No, no, no, no, no, NO.

I don't care about this fucking piece of filth. Don't wanna know his name. Don't wanna know his history. Don't care how he grew up. Don't care if he was a good boy, a sorry loser or a bloodthirsty radicalized fanatic. Don't want to know a damn thing about him.

We have been here too many times. We were here when a piece of filth drove his SUV into pedestrians on London's Westminster Bridge, killing four and then jumped out and stabbed a police officer to death.

We were here when a piece of filth drove a hijacked truck into a Christmas marketplace in Berlin and killed 12.

We were here when a piece of filth drove a truck into crowds in gathered for Bastille Day in Nice and killed 86.

We were here when pieces of filth targeted the airport and subway in Brussels and killed 32.

We were here when pieces of filth carried out mass attacks in Paris including a concert hall and killed 130.

We were here when pieces of filth attacked the offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hedbo and a kosher grocery and killed 17.

We were here when pieces of filth slaughtered 77 in Norway, 52 in London, 191 in Madrid. We were here when pieces of filth did their evil on September 11, 2001, and Fort Hood and Orlando and San Bernadino and Oklahoma City and the Boston Marathon.

Each and every time, we went back to sleep. We returned to normal or what passes for normalcy now. Terrorism is the new normal. Yes, you're more likely to perish from slipping in the shower or during your morning commute to work than you are from a radicalized terrorist targeting you, but don't tell me the odds. Tell me why I shouldn't fear being among large groups of people that tempt killers with soft targets of opportunity and the possibility of large body counts.

Make no mistake about it, when you target the audience of an Ariana Grande, you are targeting the very young and their parents, and most of them will be young. You not only know this, you're hoping to kill as many young people as you can and the youngest victim of the Manchester suicide bombing was only 8-years old.

There is a war going on and the stakes are nothing less than the survival of the free world against the barbarians lusting to destroy it. They can't live in this world, but they can kill in it. No one is off-limits. Everyone is a target.

We can't go on like this. We can't go on blithely accepting this with a helpless shoulder shrug and unanswered prayers as the New Normal. This is the New Abnormal.

This is madness and the madmen must be destroyed. We are quite literally in a fight for our lives against an evil and implacable enemy. When someone with blood in their eyes, and an insane cause they are eager to kill for presses a sharpened knife at your throat that's the wrong time to try and understand their motivations. They don't see us as human beings. They see us only as targets.

Whether it's radicals on the Right or radicals on the Left. Whether it is based on religious dogma or simple fanaticism, the deliberate targeting of innocent civilians poses an immediate threat to the civilized world, and it is one which must be neutralized and eradicated. Methodically, thoroughly and completely. With little restraint and less mercy.

That's how they are coming for us. We are at war and they are playing to win. We can't do any less. Not unless we want more of the same.
 

Maze Runner

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When someone with blood in their eyes, and an insane cause they are eager to kill for presses a sharpened knife at your throat that's the wrong time to try and understand their motivations.

It gets to the point where 'why' doesn't matter anymore. I think we're there.
 

cornflake

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No. No, no, no, no, no, NO.

I don't care about this fucking piece of filth. Don't wanna know his name. Don't wanna know his history. Don't care how he grew up. Don't care if he was a good boy, a sorry loser or a bloodthirsty radicalized fanatic. Don't want to know a damn thing about him.

We have been here too many times. We were here when a piece of filth drove his SUV into pedestrians on London's Westminster Bridge, killing four and then jumped out and stabbed a police officer to death.

We were here when a piece of filth drove a hijacked truck into a Christmas marketplace in Berlin and killed 12.

We were here when a piece of filth drove a truck into crowds in gathered for Bastille Day in Nice and killed 86.

We were here when pieces of filth targeted the airport and subway in Brussels and killed 32.

We were here when pieces of filth carried out mass attacks in Paris including a concert hall and killed 130.

We were here when pieces of filth attacked the offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hedbo and a kosher grocery and killed 17.

We were here when pieces of filth slaughtered 77 in Norway, 52 in London, 191 in Madrid. We were here when pieces of filth did their evil on September 11, 2001, and Fort Hood and Orlando and San Bernadino and Oklahoma City and the Boston Marathon.

Each and every time, we went back to sleep. We returned to normal or what passes for normalcy now. Terrorism is the new normal. Yes, you're more likely to perish from slipping in the shower or during your morning commute to work than you are from a radicalized terrorist targeting you, but don't tell me the odds. Tell me why I shouldn't fear being among large groups of people that tempt killers with soft targets of opportunity and the possibility of large body counts.

Make no mistake about it, when you target the audience of an Ariana Grande, you are targeting the very young and their parents, and most of them will be young. You not only know this, you're hoping to kill as many young people as you can and the youngest victim of the Manchester suicide bombing was only 8-years old.

There is a war going on and the stakes are nothing less than the survival of the free world against the barbarians lusting to destroy it. They can't live in this world, but they can kill in it. No one is off-limits. Everyone is a target.

We can't go on like this. We can't go on blithely accepting this with a helpless shoulder shrug and unanswered prayers as the New Normal. This is the New Abnormal.

This is madness and the madmen must be destroyed. We are quite literally in a fight for our lives against an evil and implacable enemy. When someone with blood in their eyes, and an insane cause they are eager to kill for presses a sharpened knife at your throat that's the wrong time to try and understand their motivations. They don't see us as human beings. They see us only as targets.

Whether it's radicals on the Right or radicals on the Left. Whether it is based on religious dogma or simple fanaticism, the deliberate targeting of innocent civilians poses an immediate threat to the civilized world, and it is one which must be neutralized and eradicated. Methodically, thoroughly and completely. With little restraint and less mercy.

That's how they are coming for us. We are at war and they are playing to win. We can't do any less. Not unless we want more of the same.

The way to not go on like this is to stop dismissing people who do this as 'madmen... who don't see us as human...' and people you don't want anyone to discuss.

The only way to stop people like this from doing things like this is to understand who they are and why they do things like this.

Same as everything else unsavvoury -- you dismiss Jeffery Dahmer as a sick monster who shouldn't be discussed, the next Dahmer, who is currently out there pondering eating young people, doesn't stand a chance of getting caught.

You dismiss people who do this and don't want to see them discussed, there will only be more to discuss.
 

mccardey

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This doesn't end quickly
20 remain in "critical care" in Manchester suffering "horrific injuries" including major organ damage and potential loss of limbs
 

JimmyB27

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Each and every time, we went back to sleep. We returned to normal or what passes for normalcy now. Terrorism is the new normal. Yes, you're more likely to perish from slipping in the shower or during your morning commute to work than you are from a radicalized terrorist targeting you, but don't tell me the odds. Tell me why I shouldn't fear being among large groups of people that tempt killers with soft targets of opportunity and the possibility of large body counts.

Because your fear is what they want. Fear is the entire point of terrorism.

And it's not just the terrorists that want your fear. In the increasingly right leaning world, our governments want us fearing as well. There are troops on British streets right now, and that scares me a lot more than any terrorist. What use are soldiers against an enemy like this?
 

cornflake

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Because your fear is what they want. Fear is the entire point of terrorism.

And it's not just the terrorists that want your fear. In the increasingly right leaning world, our governments want us fearing as well. There are troops on British streets right now, and that scares me a lot more than any terrorist. What use are soldiers against an enemy like this?

Absolutely nothing, honestly.

That's why the bomb went off where it did. You search bags of people going into arenas, you harden that target (the concert itself). Great. This, right here, is exactly the response. If someone moves to secure the exits, it will move to transit stops. You cannot secure the world.

Can't put airline-like security on subway/metro stations. Simply can't, not that it'd work anyway, because see what happened in the airport last year where they blew up the terminal, not inside security? That's what happens.

Harden a target, someone looking for a softer one will just step back. It's not possible to secure everything.