Ariana Grande Manchester Concert Ends in Explosion, Panic and Death -<br />By RORY SMITH and SEWELL CHANMAY 22, 2017<br />ISIS has claimed responsibility for the deadly explosion at an arena in Manchester, England,<br />where the American pop singer Ariana Grande had been performing on Monday night.<br />MANCHESTER, England — An explosion that appeared to be a suicide bombing killed at least 22 people on Monday night<br />and wounded 59 others at an Ariana Grande concert filled with adoring adolescent fans, in what the police were treating as a terrorist attack.<br />“Everyone tried to push people up the stairs,” Ms. Ford recalled, adding<br />that in the chaos, people tried to push past a woman in a wheelchair as children screamed.<br />At least one explosion went off in the foyer of the arena, according to the British Transport Police, the force<br />that protects the Manchester Victoria train station next to the arena.<br />Panic and mayhem seized the crowd at the Manchester Arena as the blast reverberated through the building, just as the show was ending<br />and pink balloons were dropping from the rafters in a signature flourish by Ms. Grande, a 23-year-old American pop star on an international tour.<br />“I was trying to tell people to calm down.” She said the masses of people trying to flee created a perilous situation: “We were being crushed.”<br />Outside, Ms. Ford said, parents awaited children who had attended the concert, checking their smartphones in a panic.
