LONDON — Greater Manchester Police reported that at least 19 people were confirmed dead while 50 others were injured when a reported bomb ripped through the arena where singer-entertainer Ariana Grande was holding a concert in Manchester, United Kingdom.
Police say they are treating the incident as a terrorist attack.
A label representative in charge of the concert promotion told Variety.com that Grande is fine after being whisked away from the Manchester Arena.
“The singer was not injured, she is okay,” according to a representative of Grande’s concert tour.
Emergency vehicles were helping the injured and bomb disposal units were later seen outside the venue.
There was mass panic after the explosion at the end of the concert, which was part of Grande’s The Dangerous Woman Tour.
One concertgoer, 22-year-old Majid Khan, told The Independent: “I and my sister, along with a lot of others were seeing Ariana Grande perform at Manchester Arena, and we were all exiting the venue when around 10.40-10,45 p.m.-ish, a huge bomb-like bang went off that hugely panicked everyone and we were all trying to flee the arena.”
“It was one bang and essentially everyone from the other side of the arena where the bang was heard from suddenly came running towards us as they were trying to exit Trinity Way, and that was blocked so everyone was just running to any exit they could find as quickly as they could,” he added.
The venue, which is located above Victoria train station in England’s second-largest city, has a capacity of 21,000. An alert from the British Transport Police says one of the explosions took place in the foyer, or the entrance area, of the arena. JPV