Updated 16.56
TEN MORE VICTIMS of the bombing at the Manchester Arena on Monday night have been named as the city comes to terms with the tragedy inflicted upon it.
22 people lost their lives and 59 people were hospitalised when suicide attacker Salman Abedi detonated his explosive device in the foyer of the arena in the aftermath of an Ariana Grande concert.
Manchester police say they “are now confident that we know who all the people are who have sadly lost their lives in the attack at the Manchester Arena”.
We have made contact with all of the families and our specially trained officers are supporting them.
However, the victims will not be formally identified until all forensic post mortems have taken place, which is likely to be another four or five days.
“After this we will be in a position to formally name the victims with guidance from the Coroner,” a spokesperson for the force said.
Victims identified
Greater Manchester Police have released a statement on behalf of Michelle Kiss (45), who is confirmed as the 13th victim of the attack.
The statement said:
“Michelle Kiss was a loving wife to Tony, mother to Dylan, Elliot and Millie, as well as daughter to Mick and Christine and sister to Nichola.
“Family was her life and we are all obviously devastated by her loss. She has been taken away from us, and all that love her, in the most traumatic way imaginable.
“We hope to draw from the courage and strength she showed in her life to get through this extremely difficult time.”
This afternoon, the 11th and 12th victims of Monday’s attack were identified.
They are 51-year-old Jane Tweddle, who had arrived at the Manchester Arena to collect a friend’s daughter from the concert, and 14-year-old Nell Jones, who had attended the concert on crutches but had left them behind before entering the arena.
Jane Tweddle, a mother-of-three, had been a receptionist at South Shore Academy in Blackpool.
“Jane was a truly wonderful friend and colleague to all of us at South Shore Academy. As our receptionist, she was in many ways the public face of the school and she represented us amazingly in this role,” principal Jane Bailey said this afternoon.
Russell Hayward, boyfriend of Martyn Hett (29), has confirmed that Martyn has been confirmed to have died.
“We got the news last night that our wonderful, iconic and beautiful Martyn didn’t survive. He left this world exactly how he lived, centre of attention,” Russell tweeted this morning.
Husband and wife Angelika (40) and Marcin Klis (42), Polish citizens who had been waiting to collect their daughters at the concert’s end, have also been confirmed dead.
Their daughter Alex had posted a photo of the couple taken before the concert to Facebook in an appeal for any information as to their whereabouts. Their deaths have now been confirmed by the Polish embassy in London, according to The Guardian.
Earlier this morning, four other victims were named: Kelly Brewster (32, who reportedly shielded her young niece from the blast), 45-year-old Alison Howe and 47-year-old Lisa Lees (both mothers who had been waiting to pick up their children, who survived the attack), and 15-year-old Olivia Campbell.
13 of those who died have yet to be officially identified.
Olivia’s mother confirmed her death at the arena just hours after making an impassioned plea for information as to her daughter’s whereabouts in the aftermath of the horrific attack.
Lisa Lees’ brother, Lee Hunter, confirmed her passing in a Facebook post saying simply: “For those who don’t know Lisa is gone but never ever forgotten, I love you Lisa I’ll miss you so much.”
Alison Howe’s stepson Jordan, who had earlier been frantically combing Manchester’s hospitals in an attempt to locate her, also confirmed on Facebook that she had died in the blast.
“They took a caring beautiful mum and step mother away from us all. She was amazing to us all,” he said.
The four latest victims have been added to the names of Saffie Rose Roussos (8), Georgina Callander (18), and John Atkinson (28), who were named yesterday.
Last night UK prime minister Theresa May raised the terror threat in Britain to ‘Critical’, the highest it has been for a decade, indicating a terror attack is expected imminently.
Meanwhile, Manchester has been in mourning, with a vigil held at Albert Square in the city to commemorate the victims suggesting that there is ‘no place for hatred in our Manchester.
In Ireland, separate books of condolence have been opened across the country for those who may wish to pay their respects to the victims, in:
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