An Islamic suicide bomber at an Ariana Grande concert in England has killed at least 22. The casualties included young elementary school children and young teens. It’s reported an 8-year-old girl, Saffie Rose Roussos, could have been the youngest fatality.
The attacker has been identified as UK-born Salman Abedi, a 22-year-old of Libyan descent whose parents were immigrants.
A father told the BBC that as he was leaving the arena with his wife and daughter the blast blew him through a set of doors. Afterward, the man 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 ok.
British Prime Minister Theresa May called the carnage a “callous terrorist attack.” The Islamic State claimed that one of its “soldiers” carried out the apparent suicide blast in Manchester.
The attack occurred near one of the exits of the arena, in a public space connected to a bustling train station. It was the worst terrorist strike on British soil since 2005, when Islamist extremists bombed the London subway and a bus, killing 54 people.