Manchester & London - Serious Incidents

[Big Boobs and FIRE!]

Manchester & London - Serious Incidents

Am on call and was called in straight away as arena is on top of Victoria station. It doesn't look good, though scene itself clear of people.

Obviously loss of life is tragic, but focus now seems to have moved on to what happens in the morning.

Police deciding whether Piccadilly and Oxford Road can open, Victoria closed ufn. Company is advising office staff to stay at home.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Manchester & London - Serious Incidents

EIM wrote: 19 confirmed dead. I just can't even.

Me neither, and I'm nowhere near and have never been there.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Manchester & London - Serious Incidents

Controlled explosion in Cathedral Gardens.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Manchester & London - Serious Incidents

Big Boobs and FIRE! wrote: Am on call and was called in straight away as arena is on top of Victoria station. It doesn't look good, though scene itself clear of people.

Obviously loss of life is tragic, but focus now seems to have moved on to what happens in the morning.

Police deciding whether Piccadilly and Oxford Road can open, Victoria closed ufn. Company is advising office staff to stay at home.

All the best with what you have to do, and thanks!

[EIM]

Manchester & London - Serious Incidents

Police have carried out a controlled explosion near the cathedral.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Manchester & London - Serious Incidents

Ah, sounds like the suspect device wasn't a bomb at all.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Manchester & London - Serious Incidents

Reuters say US suspects a suicide bomber.

[Satchmo Distel]

Manchester & London - Serious Incidents

If confirmed, this is an unspeakably vile targeting of kids; the softest of soft targets. Idiot conspiracy theorists need to learn some empathy and compassion for the grieving families..

[ursus arctos]

Manchester & London - Serious Incidents

Very much so

[Ray de Galles]

Manchester & London - Serious Incidents

tracteurgarçon wrote:

It seems pretty likely someone would've caught the explosion on video.

There's a dash cam video from a car park a few hundred yards away which seems to show a flash of light followed by a loud bang.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/manchester-arena-explosions-dashcam-footage-10478899

I've watched that video countless times now and can hear the bang but can't see any flash of light

[Nocturnal Submission]

Manchester & London - Serious Incidents

Photos of kids, mainly young girls, who were at the concert and who can't be contacted being tweeted by friends and family.

Seriously, can you even begin to conceive what they must be going through.

[Satchmo Distel]

Manchester & London - Serious Incidents

That is one reason why this feels particularly evil.

[EIM]

Manchester & London - Serious Incidents

I know that any time something like this happens people rally round and do what they can to help, and it's a reflection not of a city, but of people. That when the unspeakable happens we all do what we can to look after each other. But I've lost track of the number of times in Manchester where people have gone out of their way to help a complete stranger, including myself. It's a hard city, but it's a city built on love. And the stories coming out of town tonight have made my heart swell when hours previously it was broken.

[Satchmo Distel]

Manchester & London - Serious Incidents

The level of empathy and compassion is high, especially in recognition of the ages of those affected who need shelter, transportation and comforting. Hotels are giving accommodation for example.

[EIM]

Manchester & London - Serious Incidents

Taxi firms are offering free lifts out of the area also.

[Joparo]

Manchester & London - Serious Incidents

3:30am GM Police tweeting that they are treating this as a ''terrorist incident'' .

https://twitter.com/gmpolice/status/866841256059699200/photo/1

FMD!! If it is a '''terrorist incident'' this has to be the most heinous act of terror on British soil ever!!

Wow the targeting of mainly teenage girls at a pop concert is a low low act.....

[Sits]

Manchester & London - Serious Incidents

I wish I had something helpful to add. Just my heart goes out.

[Sam]

Manchester & London - Serious Incidents

Everything EIM's said, really. I might be thousands of miles away but Manchester's the first place I really felt like I wanted to call home. I got to my brother in law's birthday dinner today and my girlfriend asked whether my friends there were all okay, and I didn't have a clue what she meant (I'd been in the pub). They let me have a look on the computer at the news and I had a lump in my throat at one point.

Seeing all the dickheads online saying things like, 'well if you will have open borders ...' isn't helping, either. Given how these things tend to play out, it's overwhelmingly likely it was a born and bred Mancunian, you morons.

[EIM]

Manchester & London - Serious Incidents

Innit. Besides, it's Manchester. We're All Immigrants.

[EIM]

Manchester & London - Serious Incidents

This:

"Throughout the night relatives have arrived to see if their loved ones are here. Some have found them. Others get back in their car or taxi and check the next hospital."

And the tweets with pictures of young men and women who haven't been heard from since the explosion, are why I haven't slept yet.

[SouthdownRebel]

Manchester & London - Serious Incidents

Missed this last night, so just waking up to the news. Horrible. Thoughts with all those unfortunate enough to be there, and their families.

[Hot Pepsi]

Manchester & London - Serious Incidents

EIM wrote: Taxi firms are offering free lifts out of the area also.

Have they closed the trams and the trains? How close could somebody get to the arena to pick somebody up in a car?

It would be much worse in the pre-cell phone days, though I imagine that the cell is jammed and it's hard to get a call out (or is that not still a thing.)

[Sam]

Manchester & London - Serious Incidents

The area shut off probably isn't huge, Reed; Manchester Arena is right next to the tram/railway station that's been closed.

When the IRA bomb went off I remember my uncle (who at the time worked in a bank branch maybe a hundred and fifty yards from the explosion site) driving us round the exclusion zone a few days/a week later. It seemed big then, but I was only 12. Then again, that bomb was much bigger than this one sounds like having been, even if it didn't do anywhere near as much damage (by which I mean it didn't kill anyone).

[Crusoe]

Manchester & London - Serious Incidents

The BBC has a video of people, teens mostly fleeing through a station. There are others standing, presumably parents waiting for their kids. I'm choking up just imagining what's going through their minds. This is horrible.

[Antepli Ejderha]

Manchester & London - Serious Incidents

Just woke up to find this as an alert on my phone, horrific, absolutely horrific.