and i'm telling you, a more tight—knit group of people you would be hard—pressed to find. we will go to bed holding our little ones even tighter this evening. summer and her father are spending time together. they're talking about what happened — something child psychologists say young people who might be affected by the attack should do. the mayor of manchester, andy burnham, is with me. he took up a couple of weeks ago. you have expressed today your unlimited pride in the people of the city. it hasjust grown and grown throughout the day, i have been out visiting nhs hospitals in the last couple of hours and the story from staff was people flooded in, porters, cleaners, surgeons and nurses to help. not on shift, and the public were bringing in food and there is a report of a homeless man and helping tends to be injured.

this city has really gone at great length to pull together in the last 24 length to pull together in the last 2a hours. last night was our darkest night, no doubt about that, but the people of greater manchester have pulled together and there is at least some hope in that tonight and that should give people some pride. individual which took place which we will have some images of, there was also a stronger message. the vigil was a message of great togetherness and a little defiance, and that is important because moments like this do notjust of bullies but it came true that manchester was fighting back —— but moments like this do hit just self belief. to send a strong message out we will not be defeated. thank you, andy burnham, the mayor of greater manchester with his thoughts. earlier this evening, several thousand people came together in albert square — outside the town hall — to attend a vigil, where they heard expressions of pride in the city's strength of character, its diversity and resilience. i spoke to some of the

people who were there. bells ring. this city is greater than the forces that align itself against it. and as we say that, we're sending a signal notjust to manchester, but across the world. i felt compelled to come. i'm manchester born and bred. this is my city. i live here, my children have been born here. and with such an atrocious act that happened last night, with so many young people. why was it important for you to be here? it's important to me because, like mum said, i was born in manchester and i know people who were at the concert. i find it very upsetting that somebody would just walk into a place and kill themselves, along with other people, and it's very, very upsetting. you cannot defeat us because love, in the end, is always stronger than hate. cheering and applause.

the spirit of manchester cannot be broken by a nutter with a nail bomb. there's much more to this city than that. i'm really proud to be from this city. it's a wonderful place, full of culture, a very multicultural city, and we can't be defeated by something like this. so that's why i'm here today. yeah, my sentiments exactly. we are diverse, we welcome everybody in. you know, for somebodyjust to think they can come in and do what they've done, taking what's ours, this is our city and we'll always come together. manchester, manchester, manchester! being in manchester, it hits home. and with it being a terrorist attack, i feel like a lot of muslims are getting the brunt of it as well. we're here to show that we care. as muslims, we do care, no matter what these... we don't agree with anything that's gone on at all. you've seen everybody around here, how diverse it is, that's manchester everywhere, isn't it? it's not easy really to deflect anger on a day like this, is it? we're not blaming each other, we want to help each other.

anger should be diverted in the right way. to be honest, i've never been to one of these before. you know, my heart's gone out to all the victims and sadly the young kids. everything... it'sjust so sad. some of the voices at tonight's vigil here in central manchester, all of them united in declaring that the spirit of this city is as resilient tonight as it has ever been. there's more coverage on the bbc news channel but, for now, from the heart of manchester, after a harrowing 2a hours for the people of this city, goodnight. hello, there temperatures are set to climb even higher over the next few day, it was quite warm today if you

had the sunshine, beautiful blue skies here, for example at rhyl in north wales, it was quite mugy under the cloud in the south—east of england here at walton—on—thames in surrey. so of that cloud in the south—east melting away overnigh. we still have more cloud coming into northern ireland. and particularly scotla nd northern ireland. and particularly scotland with a little rain and drizzle coming from that, possibly extending into the north—west of england. not only do we have low cloud there but low cloud coming back to wales and the south—west of england through the english channel. clearer skies for eastern england but quite a warm fight. temperatures of 14 but quite a warm fight. temperatures 01:14 or 15 but quite a warm fight. temperatures 01:14 oris in but quite a warm fight. temperatures 01:14 or 15 in the towns and cities. into wednesday morning and we start off quite cloudy in a good part of wales and the south—west of england, through the english channel as well. a bit misty over the hill, some early sunshine though, across the south—east, east anglia up into the east midlands, towards north east england. cloudierforthe east midlands, towards north east england. cloudier for the north—west of england a we start off cloudy, away from eastern coastal areas of northern ireland. the thickest cloud, that will be in the north—west of scotland where we have oks of rain and drizzle. i think that will tend to peter out through the day, conditions improve here, and we are just left with one or two showers in scotland the afternoon. generally it is a dry story, area has, that start off sunny the eastern side of england, seeing more cloud developing areas that start off cloudy probably will see some sunshine developing. all in all there will be sunshine at time, dry cons just about everywhere, quite warm everyone with cloud round, temperatures widely into the low 20s oi’ temperatures widely into the low 20s or so. and later on in the week, not

only does it stay dry, but we get more and more sunshine, that will help to lift the temperatures, we could be seeing so some hot weather arriving by friday and into saturday. this is thursday, though, and with the high pressure sitting over the uk, we are tending to break up over the uk, we are tending to break up that cloud, and allow more sunshine to develop, so temperatures are going to be rising pretty much across the board. getting into the mid 20s at least. there is our high pressure, the position of it is going to be crucial, the sceptre of the high drifts away to the east, it allows some weather fronts to approach from the south—west, but also we are drawing in our air, from the near continent, so through friday we get the sunnier skies and for many that continues into saturday and the warmth really develop, 30 degrees is quite likely, possibly a touch higher than that, but out to the west, the chance of some thundery showers. goodbye. hello, there. temperatures are set to climb even higher over the next few days, it was quite warm today if you had the sunshine. beautiful blue skies here, for example at rhyl in north wales. later op in the week not only does

it stay dry. we will lift the temperature, we could be seeing some hot weather arriving by friday and end to saturday. this is thursday, though, and with the high pressure sitting over the uk, we are tending to break up that cloud, and allow more sunshine to develop, so temperatures are going to be rising pretty much across the board, getting into the mid 20s at least. is our high pressure, the position will be crucial, the centre of the high drifts away to the east, it allows some weather fronts to approach from the south—west, but also, we are drawing in our airfrom the near continent, so through friday we get the sunnier skies and for many that continues into saturday, and the warmth really develops, 30 degrees is quite likely, possibly a touch higher that than that, out to the west the chance of thundery showers. goodbye. this is bbc news. we live in manchester. the headlines this our:

—— hour. after 22 people are killed in a suicide bombing in manchester, the uk terror threat level has this evening been raised to critical — the highest level, meaning another attack might be imminent. police name the attacker who blew himself up in the packed music venue as 22—year—old salman abedi. the prime minister orders the army to help police patrol the streets, warning that the bomber might be part of a wider network. the spirit of manchester, and the spirit of britain, is far mightier than the sick plots of depraved terrorists. that is why the terrorists will never win — and we will prevail.