The Manchester Bombing

By: Taya Fierro    Feb. 7, 2018

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This tragedy happened on May the 22 of 2017, a normal night of Dangerous Women tour. As people were leaving the Manchester arena from a fun night at an Ariana Grande concert, disaster struck when an explosive bomb went off. The bomb detonated at 1:00am. It was said to be in a backpack filled with nuts and bolts. The attacker had filled the backpack with these items so that when it detonated, the bomb would act as shrapnel to potentially hurt more people. The suicide bomber was a male known by the name of, Salman Abedi. While he was the only bomber, some reports have been released to the public that state he may have been the only bomber there, but he may not have been the only person

to know about the bombing plans; and

that ISIS could have had something to

do with this sad turn of events.

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Over 14,200 people were attending,

concert-goers and parents waiting to

pick up their children from the show.

They were all there when the bomb

went off. 23 people died including

the bomber, who died after he detonated the bomb, and 500 were injured.

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The aftermath of the bombing was messy. Taxi services and local residences opened to the people who may have been left, stranded at the arena. Local hotels opened up their doors as a temporary shelter for children to stay, if they were separated from their parents, as they knew there was a lot of chaos during this time. There would most definitely be missing children and frantic parents looking for their children. All of the community were ready to help by opening up their homes as well, to the remaining victims that needed a place to stay.

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After everything was said and done, Ariana Grande was debating if she should even continue her singing career because it hit her so hard. She cried for many days, and cried even more when they announced, and showed pictures of the victims that had passed away due to the bombing. Grande decided that she couldn’t give up, especially since people had died during her concert. She decided to sing, not just for the victims of the bombing, but to prove that she, as well as her fans, were strong and not afraid.

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Her manager was just about to cancel the rest of the Dangerous Women concert when Grande came to him and told him she wanted to pay tribute to the victims, and families of the Manchester bombing. She wanted to bring another concert to raise money for the people who were affected by the bombing. This concert was called the One Love Manchester concert. Many artists wanted to help with the cause, including: Justin Bieber, Miley Cyrus, Coldplay, and many more artists. Over 50,000 people showed up and said by Ariana’s manager “The star of the show in my opinion, other than Ariana, was the crowd,” they experienced that day something amazing that can’t be changed.  Grande also went with her manager to go visit those injured, and she could barely keep it together. She had to keep in mind that she had family to come home to while others didn’t, and others lost people they loved.

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Although this is a truly sad turn of events, I’m truly heart-warmed that so many people came to the aid of so many who were in need. I will never be able to express my feelings for all who were lost and all the families that are broken. It just goes to show how a life, a family, can change in an instant; and what we as a society take for granted.