Police: Concert blast being treated as terrorism

LONDON (AP) – An explosion struck an Ariana Grande concert in northern England late Monday, killing at least 19 people and injuring dozens in what police were treating as a terrorist attack.

Greater Manchester Police said 19 people were confirmed dead after the explosion at Manchester Arena. Northwest Ambulance Service said 59 injured people had been taken to hospitals, and a number of “walking wounded” were treated at the scene. Emergency vehicles were helping the injured and bomb disposal units were later seen outside the venue.

Grande, who was not injured, tweeted hours later: “Broken. From the bottom of my heart, I am so so sorry. I don’t have words.”

There was mass panic after the explosion at the end of the concert, which was part of Grande’s The Dangerous Woman Tour.

Manchester Arena said on its website that the blast struck outside the venue as concertgoers were leaving.

Jenny Brewster said she was leaving the concert with her 11-year-old daughter when the blast hit.

“As I turned around, boom, one loud noise,” she told Sky News. “A gentleman said ‘run!’ so we ran.”

Outside, she said, “you could smell the burning.”

Britain’s terrorist threat level has been set at “severe” in recent years indicating an attack is highly likely. Police said the explosion is being judged a terrorist attack unless new information proves otherwise.

“A huge bomb-like bang went off that hugely panicked everyone and we were all trying to flee the arena,” concertgoer Majid Khan, 22, told Britain’s Press Association. “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.”

Added Oliver Jones, 17: “The bang echoed around the foyer of the arena and people started to run.”

Video from inside the arena showed concertgoers screaming as they made their way out amid a sea of pink balloons.

British Prime Minister Theresa May said the government is working to establish “the full details of what is being treated by the police as an appalling terrorist attack.”

May is due to chair a meeting of the government’s COBRA emergency committee later Tuesday. She and other candidates suspended campaigning for Britain’s June 8 election after the blast.

If the incident is confirmed as a terrorist attack it would be the deadliest in Britain since four suicide bombers killed 52 London commuters on three subway trains and a bus in July 2005.

Police advised the public to avoid the area around the Manchester Arena, and the train station near the arena, Victoria Station, was evacuated and all trains canceled.

The Dangerous Woman Tour is the third concert tour by Grande and supports her third studio album, “Dangerous Woman.”

Grande’s role as Cat Valentine on Nickelodeon’s high school sitcom “Victorious” propelled her to teen idol status, starting in 2010.

The 23-year-old Grande, with her signature high ponytail, went on to also star in spinoffs that included “iCarly,” as she worked to develop her recording career.

The tour began in Phoenix in February. After Manchester, Grande was to perform at venues in Europe, including Belgium, Poland, Germany, Switzerland and France, with concerts in Latin America and Asia to follow.

Manchester, 160 miles (260 kilometers) miles northwest of London, was hit by a huge Irish Republican Army bomb in 1996 that leveled a large swath of the city center. More than 200 people were injured, though no one was killed.