One of our own being directly affected, I thought this deserved a thread of its own.

Quoted from AnthonyCawood ... re Manchester, my 17yr old son was actually at the concert, close to the blast but he and his friend got out safely, I'd taken them over and had waited for them so at least I could get them home safely. We're really shocked by it all, you don't expect those sort of things to impact you directly... scariest night of my life :-(

Anthony, I'm so sorry to hear your son and his friend were directly involved and so happy and relieved to hear they're both safe. Traumatic and scary to say the least. I imagine kids directly involved in this will suffer long lasting scars and while I assume I'm not telling you anything you don't already know, and kids are pretty resilient, PTSD is a very real possibility.

Brits are a tough lot, defiance not fear, in the face of this. Soldiers on the streets already making their presence felt.

We in Oz are feeling it on behalf of the Mother Country and we stand firm alongside you. Truly awful.
All the best mate.

What kind of ghastly cowards bomb a teeny bopper concert?

My condolences to all the parents and partners go without saying, but I especially hope Anthony finds his loved ones and that they are safe and without harm.

Quoted from Penoyer79 What kind of ghastly cowards bomb a teeny bopper concert?

The followers call it Islam.

ISLAM is not a race it is a religion, so let's stop with the rascist crap before it even begins.  I hate all religions, but this one, ISLAM, needs to be either seriously modified so it fits within our society ( don't care what they do in the middle east) or just outright BANNED.

Just so angry. Sorry for venting on here, but just so angry. ~Kids, little girls aged 8, killed, excited to see mum and dad and then BANG Little kids buying merch, everyone happy. just to then die because some loser wants to blow himself to pieces.

I'm sorry to hear that, Anthony. Too bad people got slaughtered and some of us are scared to get out of beds now that all these things keep happening in the world.

Scoob, we call it terrorism. The followers talk crap because the followers of bombing are terrorists.

I'm not religious either by the way.

Thanks all

My son attended with a friend, they were seated very close to the exit where the bomb detonated but were still actually inside the arena when they heard it go off and they were able to get to a different exit and get out.

So they were physically unharmed, and as I'd driven them to the concert and stayed in Manchester to get them afterwards we were able to get home fairly easily.

We didn't really know what was going on until we got home, it wasn't clear if it was an accident, a shooting, a bomb etc, so the real extent of how lucky he'd been wasn't obvious to start with,

As details came out our shock deepened, and my gratitude to whoever was watching over him increased.

Struggling to process a lot of it at the moment, and I suspect he'll be effected by this for a long time to come.

However, people are coming together and being strong, Manchester and nationwide. He's got a good support mechanism and his school have been great too.

Scoob - I hear you, but it's not Islam, it's a minute number of misguided/mentally unstable individuals who are hiding behind a warped and evil misunderstanding of their faith.

Unfortunately, religions have a long track record of being used for evil purposes and persecution, but the vast majority of people in any religion, Islam, Catholicism etc are normal people who's faith doesn't hurt others, and in fact often it is used to help others.

I'm an atheist, so I have no love of any particular religion but I think we should be careful to categorise or blame everyone... we've seen that sort of attitude and persecution historically and it leaves a stain on humanity.
  

Glad your family is safe, Anthony.

Anthony- Wow, that's scary

So pleased your son was ok.

Scary stuff - so glad your family was safe. Hearts out to Manchester.

Very glad to hear your son and his friend are safe and my heart goes out to your family, Anthony.

My sincerest condolences. :( This kind of thing is really getting out of control.

-Julio

Anthony, glad to hear your family made it out safely.  Still trying to process this whole thing.  Not sure it really can be.

I hope you never experience anything like this again in your life, Anthony. Glad the boys came out unscratched.

Take care.

Manolis

Again, thanks all, your words and support are really appreciated!

Anthony

So pleased Anthony's kids are OK.
My thoughts regarding Islam and terrorism remain the same but I appreciate this is not the portal to suggest such views.

Let us hope all injured in this tragedy make speedy recoveries.

Tx again Scoob