MANCHESTER, England (AP) – Rihanna Hardy had been excited about seeing Ariana Grande ever since she got her concert ticket as a gift at Christmas. So when the day came, the 11-year-old left school a couple of hours early to make sure to get to Manchester Arena on time.
Her parents, Ryan and Shauna, took the afternoon off work, and the family drove all the way from Newcastle, 225 kilometers (140 miles) northeast of Manchester. Their car’s satellite navigation system struggled to find the arena’s multistory parking lot, and they barely made it. They only just managed to buy Rihanna a black Ariana Grande tour sweatshirt before the concert started.
But what was supposed to be a special night for Rihanna and thousands of other young concertgoers turned into a tragedy when a suicide bomb blasted off just outside the cavernous hall. It killed 22 people, including an 8-year-old girl, and injured 59 – the deadliest attack in Britain in more than a decade.
“Poor Rihanna … just kept asking every five or 10 seconds, ‘Are we going to die?’ Those were her exact words,” her father said.
The family took their seats, close to the stage, just before the first of two supporting acts warmed up the crowd. The arena, which seats 21,000, was packed. Many clutched pink balloons and donned cat ears, like those the 23-year-old Grande is famous for wearing.