The music industry reacts to the Manchester Arena attack on social media

Jenny Proudfoot
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'Broken. From the bottom of my heart, I am so so sorry. I don't have words.'

A suicide bomber has killed 22 people, and injured a further 59, in a terrorist attack at Manchester Arena.

The attack happened at around 10.33pm on Monday evening in the venue’s foyer, targeting fans as they left an Ariana Grande concert – attended by 21,000 people.

The Greater Manchester police chief Ian Hopkins released a statement to the press this morning, saying, ‘We have been treating this as a terrorist incident and we believe that while the attack last night was conducted by one man, the priority is to establish whether he was acting alone or as part of a network. The attacker, I can confirm, died at the arena. We believe the attacker was carrying an improvised explosive device, which he detonated, causing this atrocity.’

Ariana Grande took to her Twitter during the night, posting out to her fans: ‘broken. From the bottom of my heart, I am so so sorry. I don’t have words.’

Since the attack, the whole music industry has rallied behind Ariana, with high profile figures taking to social media to show their love and support to those affected.

‘Every musician feels sick & responsible tonight,’ posted Lorde. ‘Shows should be safe for you. Truly a worst nightmare. Sending love to manchester & ari.’ Selena Gomez and Katy Perry also took to their Twitter accounts early on to send their prayers to ‘everyone affected in Manchester’.

‘Absolutely Horrendous what happened in Manchester tonight,’ posted Niall Horan. ‘My thoughts are with the great people of Manchester and also Ari and her team.’ This sentiment was echoed by his ex band mate Harry Styles, who took to his Twitter account to say ‘I’m heartbroken over what happened in Manchester tonight. Sending love to everyone involved.’

Taylor Swift also took to Twitter to write, ‘My thoughts, prayers and tears for all those affected by the Manchester tragedy tonight. I’m sending my love.’

Ellie Goulding and John Mayer send their love to those affected in Manchester, while Bruno Mars posted, ‘No words can describe how I feel about what happened in Manchester. I don’t wanna believe that the world we live in could be so cruel.’

‘Tearing up imagining innocent concert goer losing their lives’, wrote Demi Lovato. ‘Praying for everyone and all #arianators’.

‘My thoughts and prayers are with the people of Manchester, anyone affected, Ariana Grande and the entire crew. Heartbreaking’ posted Pink, while Haim took to their Twitter to send ‘all our love to Manchester today’, explaining that the news had left them speechless and heartbroken.

It wasn’t just the music industry that took to social media to voice their love and support. High profile figures from talk show hosts and actors to athletes have spoken out, with Ellen DeGeneres tweeting, ‘This story is so sad and so scary. Sending all my love to Manchester.’

David Beckham also took to social media following the attack, uploading a post captioned, ‘Heartbreaking news from Manchester. as a father & a human what has happened truly saddens me. My thoughts are with all of those that have been affected by this tragedy…’

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