MSNBC is reporting that it appears to have been a suicide bomber with a backpack who wasn’t in the actual arena but was out near the ticket booth in the “foyer” (their word, hard to picture a foyer at an arena)
Calling it a terrorist attack…
Aunie Beeb has good coverage
(Interesting that “uk_observer” seems more interested in defending Trumputin than a possible terrorist attack in its own backyard.)
I feel terrible about the people who have been killed or injured in this attack, but the non-stop television coverage is irresponsible. CNN and MSNBC (and undoubtedly FOX News which I don’t watch) as well as other network and local news are partly responsible for these attacks. Just like they helped elect Trump with their pathetic billion dollar coverage and his primary and election antics, they tre playing into the terrorists fondest dreams of promoting terror.
Terrorists are playing to the camera and coverage to spread their fear and grow their power. The media is doing their best to help them, even if they think they aren’t.
This thread doesn’t pay as much.
Sadly there seems to be 19 fatalities and multiple injuries. Hopefully neither number increases, and a full and speedy recovery for the latter.
An unfortunate incident that will undoubtedly inspire Republicans to insist that we further mistreat people here.
But are they calling it “Radical Islamic Terrorism?”
That makes all the difference.
Absolute shame. 
Poor kids being kids going to a concert and then this.
From BBC:
Manchester Arena, formerly known as the MEN Arena, is the biggest indoor venue in the city, with a capacity of about 18,000.
The arena foyer connects with Victoria train and tram station, a major hub on the northern edge of the city centre.
Dammit.
I saw that a security guy who’s on Twitter was so upset about the innocent children allegedly killed by the “terrorist.” I really wanted to ask him how concerned he was when Dylann Roof went on his shooting spree or how upset he was when the alt-right terrorist stabbed the young black student at the University of Maryland and the same kind of murder in NYC recently, or the hundreds of children killed every year in this country by guns.
A waste of my time, I’m sure.
That is not to say I’m not sorry about more senseless deaths by nutcases.
I thought the rule for musicians doing live performances was that if there was a problem like this and everyone had to exit, you toned down the music and kept playing softly, to keep people calm while exiting. I guess that is how old school musicians would handle it, you know, guys who can improvise and actually play instruments, not arena pop singers.
Bullseye.
The concert was already over and the lights in the venue already turned on.
Hmm… that dashcam video has music playing in the background, it sounded like the concert was in full swing, the music could be heard by the dashcam a block away.
That dashcam video is from the car of someone waiting outside for his girlfriend and others to come out after the show. He’s listening to his own music in his car.
Comrade Chaos can finally get some positive coverage on American TV news — None.
Cynical but true.
If that’s the case, a logical scenario is that the person knew they could not get past security into the concert with the bomb, so they instead planned the attack in the less secure vestibule (foyer), and when they knew there would be a crowd (people leaving).
I can see this having a negative effect on these assholes though. Something about kids being killed that pisses people off much more than adults. Yes, it’s still a life, but there is an innocence about kids that really makes it much more tragic to people, like Sandy Hook. Even some terror supporters in this instance must be saying “a kids concert? really?”.
I highly doubt in this day and age of mass shootings and terrorist bombings that any musician is going to hang around and play music. I certainly wouldn’t expect that of a twenty something young woman who doesn’t know if the entire place is about to explode.