Islamic State claims responsibility for Manchester arena attack

Islamic State claimed responsibility for Monday's deadly attack at the Manchester Arena and said it was carried out with an explosive device planted at the concert, according to a statement the group posted on Telegram.

"One of the soldiers of the Caliphate was able to place an explosive device within a gathering of the Crusaders in the city of Manchester," the statement said.

Parents' anguish

Desperate parents and friends used social media to search for loved ones who attended Monday's concert 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 the 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.