UK's Manchester Arena attack: Amid panic, hotels, cabbies come to rescue

The shock and panic from the blast led to more chaos as parents were separated from their children

American pop singer Ariana Grande is a favourite with teenagers and her concert in Manchester Arena last evening had a large presence of teenagers and kids. While the concert got over and the audience started leaving, a blast at the venue left at least 19 people dead. The toll is understood to have risen to 22 now.

Amid panic after the blast, there was more chaos at the venue as parents were separated from their children. The concert was attended by 21,000 people and the blast sent the large crowd running outside in panic. Concert-goers described the scenes of panic outside.

The state of some of the parents after this blast could also be seen on social media as desperate parents in search of their kids took to social media. The city of Manchester also tried to pitch in, with a Holiday Inn hotel accepting children who could not find their parents. The crisis also brought out the best of Manchester's residents. Taxi drivers and residents offered to ferry those stranded in the city for free. On Twitter #RoomForManchester was used to offer a free room or sofa to those stuck in the city. #ManchesterMissing was also used to circulate the images of those missing after the concert.

Facebook also activated its safety check feature to allow users to inform their family and friends that they were safe.

"People have died where I work. Innocent people, mostly kids, have died," posted Twitter user Will.

One Josh Elliot told BBC about the pandemonium and confusion at the venue as people tried to rush out, some covered in blood and some in tears.

Majid Khan told Independent newspaper, "I and my sister, along with a lot of others were seeing Ariana Grande perform at Manchester Arena, and we were all exiting the venue when around 10.40-10,45pm-ish, a huge bomb-like bang went off that hugely panicked everyone and we were all trying to flee the arena.

"It was one bang and essentially everyone from the other side of the arena where the bang was heard from suddenly came running towards us as they were trying to exit Trinity Way and that was blocked so everyone was just running to any exit they could find as quickly as they could.

"Everyone was in a huge state of panic, calling each other as some had gone to the toilet whilst this had gone off, so it was just extremely disturbing for everyone there."