A suicide attack at the Manchester Arena has killed 22 people, leaving another 59 injured. The explosion occurred around 22.30 GMT+1. The attacker was carrying an improvised explosive device and has died. The police is still investigating if there is a larger network behind the attacker, but are treating the blast as a terrorist attack.
Xinhua News reported that President Xi Jinping has sent a condolence message to Queen Elizabeth, expressing deep sorrow to the victims and condolences to the injured and the families of those killed in the incident. He also said “the Chinese people stand firmly with the British people at this difficult time.”
On Weibo, there are thousands of people commenting on the Manchester explosion and sharing their condolences: “For now, we can just grieve over the victims, console the injured, and denounce the attacker,” some said.
“It’s so horrible! I was also at the scene!”, a netizen nicknamed ‘Mary’ (@玛丽莲梦露奥巴马忽忽) wrote: “I am very fortunate to have made it out safely. We heard a loud noise behind us and everyone started running and pushing while screaming and crying. It’s the first time I realized how nearby the danger actually is.”
The young woman also wrote: “I never expected that a night that started so happily attending this concert would end up with a sudden explosion. The police say there are 20 people dead and many injured, and that there were two explosions. The first happened close behind me; I only suddenly heard a loud noise, and then I looked and almost in the same second I saw how people had an expression of sheer panic on their face and began to shout and cry, pushing the crowd forwards.”
News of the attack also led to concerned reactions on safety in Europe, with many saying “Europe is just a mess now.” Similar reactions were made after the attacks in, amongst others, Berlin, Brussels, Nice, Cologne, and Paris.
“Is Europe really this chaotic? Or are local media just picking out this kind of news?”, one confused netizen (@富文佩) wondered.
There are also many commenters asking about the attacker. “He certainly was not of a peaceful religion,” (“肯定不是和平宗教干的”), some said.
“The power of religion is expanding, it is getting bigger and bigger,” one commenter wrote, while there were also people calling “Islam doctrine a tumor in civilization.”
Although there have reports of Islamic State supporters celebrating the Manchester attack online, there have been no official claims made yet.
– By Manya Koetse
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