RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
This morning, we're following news of the suicide bombing that happened last night in Manchester, England. The attacker set off a bomb as people filed out of an Ariana Grande concert. Twenty-two people are dead, 59 others have been injured. Some children died in the attack. We're going to listen now to a few voices who were in Manchester at the arena when the bomb went off and who spoke to the BBC.
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UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #1: The concert just ended. The lights had come up. And we just heard this massive bang and the floor shook.
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UNIDENTIFIED MAN: When I got up and looked around, there were about 30 people scattered everywhere. Some of them looked dead, might have been unconscious. But there was a lot of fatalities.
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UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #2: There were just parents stood on walls screaming for their kids. And there were, like, children just running up and down, like, hysterically shouting for their parents and things. It was awful.
MARTIN: Some voices there from the attack in Manchester. Last night, we reached another one, Allen Brennan (ph). He lives a few hundred yards from the scene.
ALLEN BRENNAN: I was in my living room with my two housemates, and we heard two loud thuds, two very loud bangs. And we weren't sure exactly what had happened. But we looked outside the window, and we could see floods of people running from the area.
MARTIN: Brennan says a lot of the people he saw running were children.
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
Now, this attack happened right after Ariana Grande finished her set. Fans were filing out. And when they heard a loud noise, many of them didn't know that it was a bomb. Here's what Stacy Thompson (ph) told the BBC.
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STACY THOMPSON: We just heard, like, a massive explosion. And we thought maybe, like, it was a speaker or something like that. And, like, everybody heard it but didn't take any notice. And then all of a sudden, everyone stopped and just turned around and ran back out and was just telling us to run.
GREENE: In all of this chaos, some parents lost track of their kids. Nearby hotels reportedly took in children who were lost. This morning, Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham said people gave the best possible immediate response.
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ANDY BURNHAM: These were children, young people and their families that those responsible chose to terrorize and kill. This was an evil act. We are grieving today, but we are strong. Today, it will be business as usual as far as possible in our great city. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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