Children among 22 dead in Manchester Arena suicide attack

At least 22 people have been killed and 59 wounded in an explosion at the end of a concert by US singer Ariana Grande in the  Manchester on Monday.

Greater Manchester Police said the lone male attacker, who died in the blast, detonated an improvised explosive device. 

It was the deadliest militant assault in Britain since four British Muslims killed 52 people in suicide bombings on London's transport system in July 2005.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd described it as 'a barbaric attack, deliberately targeting some of the most vulnerable'. 

Chief constable Ian Hopkins confirmed that children were among the dead. 

The Prime Minister is to chair a meeting of the government's emergency Cobra committee at around 9 am.

Police responded to reports of an explosion shortly after 10:33 pm at Manchester Arena, which has the capacity to hold 21,000 people, where the US singer had been performing to an audience that included many children.

A witness who attended the concert said she felt a huge blast as she was leaving the arena, followed by screaming and a rush by thousands of people trying to escape the building.

A video posted on Twitter showed fans, many of them young, screaming and running from the venue. Dozens of parents frantically searched for their children, posting photos and pleading for information on social media.

'We were making our way out and when we were right by the door there was a massive explosion and everybody was screaming,' concert-goer Catherine Macfarlane told Reuters.

'It was a huge explosion – you could feel it in your chest. It was chaotic. Everybody was running and screaming and just trying to get out.'

Ariana Grande, 23, later said on Twitter: 'broken. from the bottom of my heart, i am so so sorry. i don't have words.' May, who faces an election in two-and-a-half weeks, said her thoughts were with the victims and their families. May and Jeremy Corbyn agreed to suspend campaigning ahead of the June 8 election.

'We are working to establish the full details of what is being treated by the police as an appalling terrorist attack,' May said in a statement. 'All our thoughts are with the victims and the families of those who have been affected.' Islamic State supporters took to social media to celebrate the blast and some encouraged similar attacks elsewhere. Britain is on its second-highest alert level of 'severe', meaning an attack by militants is considered highly likely.

British counter-terrorism police have said they are making on average an arrest every day in connection with suspected terrorism. In March, a British-born convert to Islam ploughed a car into pedestrians on London's Westminster Bridge, killing four people before stabbing to death a police officer who was on the grounds of parliament. The man was shot dead at the scene. In 2015, Pakistani student Abid Naseer was convicted in a US court of conspiring with al Qaeda to blow up the Arndale shopping center in the center of Manchester in April 2009. Parents' anguishManchester Arena, the largest indoor arena in Europe, opened in 1995 and is a popular concert and sporting venue. Desperate parents and friends used social media to search for loved ones while the wounded were being treated at six hospitals across Manchester. 'Everyone pls share this, my little sister Emma was at the Ari concert tonight in #Manchester and she isn't answering her phone, pls help me,' said one message posted alongside a picture of a blonde girl with flowers in her hair. Paula Robinson, 48, from West Dalton about 40 miles east of Manchester, said she was at the train station next to the arena with her husband when she felt the explosion and saw dozens of teenage girls screaming and running away from arena. 'We ran out,' Robinson told Reuters. 'It was literally seconds after the explosion. I got the teens to run with me.' Robinson took dozens of teenage girls to the nearby Holiday Inn Express hotel and tweeted out her phone number to worried parents, telling them to meet her there. She said her phone had not stopped ringing since her tweet. 'Parents were frantic running about trying to get to their children,' she said. 'There were lots of children at Holiday Inn.' Chief constable Ian Hopkins said: 'This has been the most horrific incident we have had to face in Greater Manchester and one that we all hoped we would never see. 'Families and many young people were out to enjoy a concert at the Manchester Arena and have lost their lives. Our thoughts are with those 22 victims that we now know have died, the 59 people who have been injured and their loved ones. We continue to do all we can to support them. They are being treated at eight hospitals across Greater Manchester. 'This is a fast-moving investigation and we have significant resources deployed to both the investigation and the visible patrols that people will see across Greater Manchester as they wake up to news of the events last night. This will include armed officers as people would expect. More than 400 officers have been involved in the operation during the night.' The Bishop of Manchester, Rt Rev David Walker, tweeted: 

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, tweeted: 

Additional reporting by Reuters.