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Manchester Arena bombing: Saffie Rose Roussos, eight, named as second victim of suicide attack – latest Manchester Arena bombing: Saffie Rose Roussos, eight, named as second victim of suicide attack – latest
(35 minutes later)
3.40pm BST
15:40
Theresa May has arrived at Manchester children’s hospital to visit victims of the attack, my colleague Jamie Grierson reports.
The prime minister, Theresa May, arrives at Manchester children's hospital, where she is to visit victims of the arena bomb attack. pic.twitter.com/vYuVM6YMPx
3.39pm BST
15:39
Jamie Grierson
Theresa May, has arrived at Manchester’s children’s hospital and Manchester Royal Infirmary to meet patients and staff.
May arrived in a black Jaguar and was escorted into the hospital entrance by royal and specialist protection officers from the Metropolitan police.
The prime minister is expected to talk to patients and staff in a visit not expected to last longer than 30 minutes.
Twelve children under 16 are being treated at the children’s hospital and nine adults are being treated at the MRI.
The prime minister, Theresa May, arrives at Manchester children's hospital, where she is to visit victims of the arena bomb attack. pic.twitter.com/vYuVM6YMPx
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15:34
The former prime minister Gordon Brown and his wife Sarah have tweeted this.
A heartbreaking time of sadness, grief and tears for so many young lives lost and injured in Manchester. Thoughts with all the families.
3.31pm BST
15:31
Julian Borger
The US director of national intelligence, Dan Coats, has just returned from London, where he said he had spent a lot of time with intelligence colleagues discussing security threats to the UK and US.
“It once again reminds us. This threat is real. It is not going away and needs significant attention to do everything we can do to protect our people,” Coats told a congressional committee.
On Islamic State involvement in the Manchester bombing, Coats said the US intelligence community “have not verified, yet, the connection”.
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15:29
This is from António Guterres, the United Nations secretary general.
My heart is with people of Manchester & all victims of terrorism. We must stand together against violence and bring perpetrators to justice.
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15:28
Josh Halliday
Armed police have arrived at the Etihad stadium, where friends and family of victims are being supported by family liaison officers and British Red Cross staff.
Speaking outside the stadium, British Red Cross worker Niall Pemberton said he had been helping the families since 8am, when the first relatives began to arrive.
He said: “We have got a mixture of families in there going through a range of emotions. Different people at different stages of emotion.
“We are there to provide people with the opportunity to offload. We are here because of some of the expertise we have supporting friends and families.”
There has been a steady trickle of volunteers bringing food, water and pizza to the stadium throughout the day.
Armed police have now arrived at the Etihad pic.twitter.com/Ukoo2ynnzl
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3.26pm BST
15:26
Emmanuel Macron, the French president, walked to the British embassy in Paris (it is close to the Elysée Palace) to sign the book of condolences for victims of the Manchester attack.
#Manchester Macron, Philippe, Le Drian et De Sarnez se rendent à pied à l'ambassade du Royaume-Uni pic.twitter.com/Qer6Ui3hH9
#Manchester: Emmanuel Macron signe le registre de condoléances à l'ambassade britannique pic.twitter.com/rqcXf4lHbW
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3.25pm BST
15:25
Jamie Grierson
Manchester remains jumpy. As doctors and nurses cared for patients at the Manchester Royal Infirmary and Manchester Children’s hospital, a fire alarm forced the evacuation of the hospital.
A single fire engine arrived and the staff and patients were able to return shortly after they were evacuated.
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3.16pm BST
15:16
This is what Theresa May said when asked what would be done to ensure that people and their children going to music concerts and festivals over the summer will be safe.
Well, the police and others will of course be looking at the security of venues to ensure that people can continue to enjoy summer events, feeling secure, and enjoy those events.
What is clear is that we are ensuring that resources are available for the police in order to be able to do the job that they need to do.
This was a horrendous attack, absolutely horrific, barbaric in its nature, but what I’m also clear about is that we will not let the terrorists win. Our values will prevail.
3.16pm BST
15:16
The Metropolitan police is reviewing security plans for upcoming events in the capital.
Police could be deployed to smaller events that have not been policed in the past, it said.
There will also be an increase in armed and unarmed officers on patrols around key locations and crowded places.
A full review of the security and policing operations for the weekend’s sporting events at Wembley and Twickenham is also under way.
Operation Hercules, involving the deployment of a range of armed officers, will be stepped up. Commander Jane Connors said:
“We are determined to do all we can to protect the capital. That means that over the coming days as you go to a music venue, go shopping, travel to work or head off to the fantastic sporting events you will see more officers, including armed officers.
“We are used to delivering policing operations that seek to mitigate against the severe threat we face from terrorists. It is only right that we now take time to review those existing plans and make sure we are confident that we are doing all we can.
“As you are out and about in London please be alert – call us immediately if you see something suspicious. If you are at an event and something worries you, go straight to a police officer or security guard and tell them.
Updated
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3.08pm BST3.08pm BST
15:0815:08
The BBC is playing a clip of an interview with Theresa May in Manchester.The BBC is playing a clip of an interview with Theresa May in Manchester.
She says an “absolutely callous” act has taken place.She says an “absolutely callous” act has taken place.
She has spoken to the police about the inquiry. They are working to see if the attacker was part of a wider group.She has spoken to the police about the inquiry. They are working to see if the attacker was part of a wider group.
Q: The youngest victim named was eight.Q: The youngest victim named was eight.
May says this is a “horrendous tragedy”. She is ensuring the police have the resources they need.May says this is a “horrendous tragedy”. She is ensuring the police have the resources they need.
She thanks the police for their work. Officers turned up for work when they were off duty.She thanks the police for their work. Officers turned up for work when they were off duty.
The terrorists must not prevail.The terrorists must not prevail.
Q: What can you say to people worried if their children will be safe at concerts this summer?Q: What can you say to people worried if their children will be safe at concerts this summer?
May says the police will be looking at events to ensure that people are safe.May says the police will be looking at events to ensure that people are safe.
We must ensure our values prevail, she says.We must ensure our values prevail, she says.
UpdatedUpdated
at 3.11pm BSTat 3.11pm BST
3.07pm BST3.07pm BST
15:0715:07
That vigil for the victims will take place between 6pm and 7pm, Manchester police has confirmed.That vigil for the victims will take place between 6pm and 7pm, Manchester police has confirmed.
pic.twitter.com/7yJgFx998bpic.twitter.com/7yJgFx998b
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3.01pm BST3.01pm BST
15:0115:01
Prince Charles has expressed his deep distress. In a statement, he said:Prince Charles has expressed his deep distress. In a statement, he said:
My wife and I were so profoundly shocked to learn of the truly dreadful event which took place in Manchester last night.My wife and I were so profoundly shocked to learn of the truly dreadful event which took place in Manchester last night.
That such a large number of people, including so many young concert-goers, lost their lives or have suffered so much in this appalling atrocity is deeply distressing and fills us with intense sadness.That such a large number of people, including so many young concert-goers, lost their lives or have suffered so much in this appalling atrocity is deeply distressing and fills us with intense sadness.
Words cannot adequately express what so many families must be feeling at this incredibly difficult time and our most heartfelt sympathy is with all those who have so tragically lost loved ones or who have been affected in some way.Words cannot adequately express what so many families must be feeling at this incredibly difficult time and our most heartfelt sympathy is with all those who have so tragically lost loved ones or who have been affected in some way.
A message of condolence from The Prince of Wales following the attack in Manchester yesterday. https://t.co/5TWglsOxQPA message of condolence from The Prince of Wales following the attack in Manchester yesterday. https://t.co/5TWglsOxQP
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2.52pm BST2.52pm BST
14:5214:52
Frances PerraudinFrances Perraudin
Residents have gathered at the entrance to Elsmore Road in the suburb of Fallowfield, where police reportedly carried out a controlled explosion at about 12.30 today.Residents have gathered at the entrance to Elsmore Road in the suburb of Fallowfield, where police reportedly carried out a controlled explosion at about 12.30 today.
Many say they have heard that a man was arrested at gunpoint at this address, but I haven’t found anybody who actually saw it.Many say they have heard that a man was arrested at gunpoint at this address, but I haven’t found anybody who actually saw it.
The road has been blocked off, there is a police helicopter overhead and scores of police officers can be seen outside a property at the end of the street. There is also a fire engine parked nearby.The road has been blocked off, there is a police helicopter overhead and scores of police officers can be seen outside a property at the end of the street. There is also a fire engine parked nearby.
Neville Edwards, who lives locally and whose mother’s house backs on to the property raided by police, said he came to see what was going on after he heard the explosion.Neville Edwards, who lives locally and whose mother’s house backs on to the property raided by police, said he came to see what was going on after he heard the explosion.
He says he doesn’t know the people who live in the house and, although there have been a few names “bandied about”, he isn’t familiar with any of them.He says he doesn’t know the people who live in the house and, although there have been a few names “bandied about”, he isn’t familiar with any of them.
“The explosion rocked windows and my mum said it rocked her house,” he says. “There were people as far as Platt Lane, which is half a mile away, who felt it.”“The explosion rocked windows and my mum said it rocked her house,” he says. “There were people as far as Platt Lane, which is half a mile away, who felt it.”
He says it was “shocking and scary” for people in the area, given what happened last night. Lots of local parents went to pick children up from the local primary school when they heard it, he says. “There are a lot of families with young children in the area and they need reassuring that it’s under control.He says it was “shocking and scary” for people in the area, given what happened last night. Lots of local parents went to pick children up from the local primary school when they heard it, he says. “There are a lot of families with young children in the area and they need reassuring that it’s under control.
“As you can see it’s a really close-knit area, with really good community links,” says Edwards. “Everybody knows everybody and people would do anything for each other, which makes it even more shocking that this has happened at an address in the area.”“As you can see it’s a really close-knit area, with really good community links,” says Edwards. “Everybody knows everybody and people would do anything for each other, which makes it even more shocking that this has happened at an address in the area.”
Forensic officers were photographed searching an address in Elsmore Road.Forensic officers were photographed searching an address in Elsmore Road.
UpdatedUpdated
at 2.59pm BSTat 2.59pm BST
2.46pm BST
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2.44pm BST
14:44
Nadia Khomami
The British Red Cross has set up a reception centre at the Manchester Etihad stadium for family and friends of those involved in the attack.
Niall Pemberton, a senior emergency response officer, is managing four volunteers who are giving support to the families affected.
He said the atmosphere inside the stadium was sombre. “People are processing the incident, processing their grief, processing their trauma and really going through that array of emotions that would be expected in a situation like this,” he said.
Police have asked people to go to the reception centre if they are still awaiting information and want to be reunited with someone who is missing, as well as those coming to terms with the death of someone who was at the concert. “There’s a real mixture of people,” Pemberton said.
He said there were 10- 12 families in the reception centre.
“We’ve been here since about 8 o’clock this morning. It’s a voluntary response. We’re offering practical and emotional support, what that looks like in practice is helping people come to terms with the situation they’re going through, offering people space, the opportunity to have someone to talk to, or provide refreshments if they’re needed.”
The families are helping each other too, he added. “People are processing grief and the information they’re hearing in different ways. They’re coming together to offer support. The community of Manchester has also put tremendous effort in offering their support.”
Updated
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2.44pm BST
14:44
Severin Carrell
Nicola Sturgeon has told MSPs at Holyrood an urgent security review is under way for policing major public events, including this Saturday’s Scottish cup final between Celtic and Aberdeen at Hampden stadium in Glasgow.
In a short statement updating the Scottish parliament on the Manchester Arena attack, the first minister confirmed Police Scotland has significantly increased the deployment of armed officers and armed response vehicles in public places as a precaution.
Officers from Police Scotland and the British Transport police were on duty at motorway service stations and train stations to interview any Scottish concert-goers on their way home who could be witnesses to the attack, she said.
Sturgeon added that two teenagers from the small Hebridean island of Barra who had attended the Ariana Grande concert, Laura MacIntyre 15, and Eilidh MacLeod, 14, were still missing, 14 hours after the attack. So far, four Scottish injured victims had been identified, with two already discharged from hospital and a third expected to be released later today.
She and Ken Macintosh, Holyrood’s presiding officer, said they had written separately to the mayor of Manchester, Andy Burnham, sharing their condolences.
Macintosh said:
There is a tangible sense of shock and sorrow in parliament as we come together today and reflect on the events of last night in Manchester. The fact that those deliberately targeted in the attack were innocent children and young people who had come together to enjoy a concert makes the news all the more devastating.
Updated
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2.34pm BST
14:34
Polish citizens are among those missing after the attack, the Polish foreign ministry has confirmed to Jakub Krupa from the Polish Press Agency.
CONFIRMED: Polish MFA says Polish citizens are among the people missing after last night's terrorist attack in Manchester.
He says Angelika and Marcin Klis are reported missing.
Two Polish citizens, Angelika and Marcin Klis, reported missing after the Manchester attack last night; no verified reports about their fate pic.twitter.com/d38g5Mx1ff
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2.23pm BST
14:23
The RMT has suspended a planned strike next week on Merseyrail, Northern Rail and Southern Rail in the wake of the Manchester attack.
Mick Cash, the RMT general secretary, said: “In light of the horrific bombing in Manchester last night, and the heightened safety and security alerts on our transport services, RMT’s executive has taken the decision to suspend the 24 hours of strike action scheduled for Tuesday 30 May on Merseyrail, Northern Rail and Southern Rail.
“Our thoughts and solidarity at this time are with the people of Manchester.”
Updated
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2.15pm BST
14:15
It seems that the controlled explosion in Fallowfield occurred on Elsmore Road. The Press Association has this:
Armed police sealed off Elsmore Road this morning as residents heard a large bang in the street.
Rosemary Ward, 21, said: “They were all running out of the house when a big bomb went off. That’s obviously what it was because the whole house was shaking. Everyone was panicking. I heard there was 20 people in that one house. It was scary.”
She said: “I’m shaking. I’m just worried about my child.”
Ward added: “It was the bang that shook us up. I started crying and just picked my child up.” She said the police operation was at about 11.30am.
There was s reportedly a controlled explosion here a few hours ago. pic.twitter.com/PV23szWntn
Updated
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2.10pm BST
14:10
Jamie Grierson
Jeremy Hunt, the health secretary, arrived at Royal Manchester Children’s hospital on Tuesday afternoon but declined to comment as he rushed into the building.
Twelve children under the age of 16 were among the 59 casualties taken to hospitals in the city, medical staff told reporters outside the Manchester Royal infirmary.
David Ratcliffe, the medical director of the North West ambulance service, said 12 patients were taken by ambulance to the children’s Hospital. Nine were taken to the neighbouring infirmary. Others were taken to hospitals across Greater Manchester.
In a statement, Jon Rouse, the chief officer of Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership, expressed “deep condolences” to the victims and their families.
“It’s been a terrible night and morning in terms of Greater Manchester,” he said. “Although we have also seen some of the best aspects of Greater Manchester and the people who live there as well.”
Dozens of cameras and reporters are assembled outside the infirmary in an otherwise calm atmosphere.
Rouse added: “Clearly there are a number of individuals who have very, very serious injuries and are requiring intensive care and people who are going to be in hospital for a long time in terms of that treatment.”
Ratcliffe said: “We sent 60 vehicles to the site, along with highly specialised crews, highly specialised teams, that were able to stabilise patients at the scene and ensure that they received the right treatment at the scene before evacuation to hospital. We took 59 patients to local A&Es around the Greater Manchester area.”
He said nine patients had been taken to the infirmary, six to Salford Royal Foundation Trust, six to the University Hospital of South Manchester, six to Stepping Hill, eight to Bolton hospital, seven to the Royal Oldham hospital and five to North Manchester hospital.
Updated
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2.06pm BST
14:06
Jason Burke
The Isis claim of responsibility (see earlier) was expected by most analysts given the timing, type and target of the Manchester bombing
It obviously comes after a series of attacks executed by Isis networks or sympathisers (or both) across Europe, including the UK. The attacks have varied in some aspects but are all clearly part of the same effort by the group to terrorise western European populations, polarise communities and motivate their own supporters.
Experts have long predicted a wave of violence as the group’s strongholds in Syria and Iraq crumble under military pressure.
Those predictions were partly based on the idea of a wave of British, French, Belgian and German veterans of the terrorist group’s war in Iraq and Syria returning to their former homes. It is unclear if that is happening generally, or if this latest attack was executed by such an individual or by someone whose connections with the group are tenuous, or even exist at all. The claim of responsibility provides some clues.
Until recently, Isis claims were seen as credible. The group only claimed attacks that were directly or indirectly linked to it, and it was often careful to indicate through the vocabulary used in its communications whether an attacker had been inspired or directed by the group.
Casualty numbers were often inflated – here the claim is of 100 “crusaders” – but claims of links to the attackers were usually substantiated. Sometimes claims included inaccuracies – an early message after the November 2015 attacks in Paris included a bombing, which didn’t happen, among the various attacks launched by its cell – but this seems more due to operational issues than a desire to brag, deny, obfuscate or invent.
More recently, however, the claims have been demonstrably less accurate. Isis claimed responsibility for the truck attack in Nice last year, though no evidence has emerged of any links between the group and the man who murdered more than 80 people in the French city during the 14 July celebrations.
It also claimed responsibility for the Westminster attack in London in March, though again, there is nothing to indicate anyone from the organisation was in touch with Khalid Massood, the extremist who drove a car into pedestrians and stabbed a police officer outside parliament.
Some details of the group’s claim of responsibility for the recent Champs Élysée shooting – by a radicalised, police-hating career criminal – just before the French election also appeared to be wide of the mark.
The Manchester claim has some inaccuracies and gaps: it appears to indicate that several explosive devices were left at the arena rather than a single one being set off by the bomber as a suicide attack; and, unusually, the nom de guerre of the attacker is not given. The former confusion may indicate that a planned operation went awry, with perhaps the bomber setting off the explosives early by accident. The latter omission is harder to explain if Isis was deeply involved in the attack.
In recent years, analysts have looked at the timing of claims. If they were issued quickly – and included some telling operational detail that would only be known to conspirators – then that indicated Isis had prior knowledge of the attack. If they were slower and lacked precision then it implied the group was more distant.
In several cases, Isis provided proof of its deep involvement by publishing pre-recorded videos of attackers, though some of these appear to have reached the group only as the attack was under way. We will have to see if this kind of evidence emerges.
What we haven’t had yet is Isis claiming an attack that has absolutely nothing to do with their agenda and ideology, which is important in working out who was responsible for this tragedy. Clearly we will know more when we learn something concrete about the identity of the bomber.
Islamic State's official statement re #Manchester, w/ dubious figures re casualties, distributed on Nashir News channels before Amaq report pic.twitter.com/bQ17QSmxw5
Updated
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1.54pm BST
13:54
Sandra Laville
A witness in Wilbraham Road, south-west Manchester, has confirmed that an arrest took place there this morning.
Bob Down, who works at a PR agency above the Elektric Club in the road, said: “There were police in a couple of cars and I saw them with one guy putting him into the back of a police van. it was quite low key. They guy looked quite young.”
We cannot confirm reports that this was the 23-year-old arrested by Manchester police.
Updated
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1.52pm BST
13:52
Theresa May and Amber Rudd, the home secretary, have arrived at the Greater Manchester police HQ.
Prime Minister and Home Secretary arriving at GMP police headquarters pic.twitter.com/mrRWsTiuko