hour, 19 dead in manchester, england, and the terror attack. at least 50 wounded at an arianna grande concert. >> shepard: it is not a clock on the east coast. 2:00 in the morning in manchester where the explosion has happened and authorities believe a terror attack has happened. they are investigating it as a terror attack at the manchester arena. one of the largest if not arenas of its kind in all of europe. the time was 10:40 p.m. british summertime. a large explosion occurred around the foyer of the serena. right above the tickets did tit office. in the arena at the time, after this noise was heard they came on the overhead speakers at

ariana grande's concert, it had just ended. they believed balloons had popped. there were a lot of pink balloons that were part of the stagecraft. they told concertgoers the balloons had popped and chairs had fallen. they believed there was nothing to worry about. that was in the early going. they did not realize what had happened at the entrance. there were a lot of people out front. parents who were waiting, thousands of young girls had come to this concert unaccompanied. you seal the pink balloons. thousands of people were were g leaving. the people that leave to try to get ahead of the traffic, they were leaving. and at that moment, there was an explosion right at the entrance to this place. before it was all over, emergency services confirmed 19 people dead. more than 50 injured as tucker

just mentioned. we are now waiting for a news conference we are expecting to come from authorities in london to give us the latest on this. they shut down the train stations and put a large cordon area. it is a dashcam video from may be a police car. it's looking at a brick building. to the left in a darkened area will be the arena itself. you will hear a car radio playing with music. and then you will see a flash and hear a noise and hear a man inside the car. let's listen. [music playing] >> no. >> shepard: realizing that something horrible had happened inside the arena.

and that we believe with the explosion. as it has been described to us, there was chaos inside that building. children running for the exit, a mad scramble to get out the door. some had fallen and no doubt were injured in an attempt to exit. people had witnessed the explosion on the outside. they'd seen the blood he people outside. and bodies frankly lying on his huge concrete area. some live pictures coming to us from sky news in the united kingdom shows chaos coming in. these are the stairwells as people were exiting, running down the stairs. and hauling for the exit. where were getting reports, the timing of the explosion is 30

hours after the president has issued his call against terrorism in the area. as he was speaking in riyadh, saudi arabia. we were getting information from the bbc, one caller said her husband and she were at the arena to pick up their daughters, aged 15 and 17. it was definitely a bomb. it was definitely in the foyer. we stood there at the top of the stairs, the glass exploded. it was near to where they were selling the merchandise. the t-shirts and all the rest they go along with something like that. the whole building shook. there is a flash of fire. fortunately for us, our children were safe to tell the story. hundreds of hotels offering beds and rest fight for these kids respite for these kids.

allowing people to come into their homes. we got and other information from the police saying there is a second bag of clothing. on tucker carlson's program it was mentioned that they blew up this one witness, speaking to bbc said it was like something out of a war film. he was thrown to the ground by the force of the explosion. waiting for his daughter and wife. quoting when he got up and looked around, there were bodies everywhere. i reckon 20-30 bodies. they all looked dead. they were covered in blood and were seriously hurt. i ran into the arena try to find my family. i can find them so i pulled back to where everybody was injured. to physically look at the people to see if it was my family. at the same time, i started helping the emergency services as best i could will try to get a hold of my family." he eventually found his family but there are and teenagers just lying there and screaming.

we are getting new reports in from sky news. 5 minutes past 2:00 in the morning. let's listen. >> theresa may, already, we have had condemnation and condolences from party leaders. >> from party leaders and party members. saying their thoughts are with all those affected, the local politicians, they've been talking about this tonight. paris, offering support to manchester. again, musicals being targeted. concerts have been the case again. another popular music venue in paris. significantly older crowd but this... the people who were carried out,

if it's proven to be a terrorist attack, they would have known the sort of people here who would have been attending. 21,000 people packed inside this auditorium. at this concert venue. most of them would have been young girls. the witnesses who have been talking to tonight, extremely fortunate mother who left the venue early with her daughter, her first concert. she left early. then we found that dashcam footage from a car, which wasn't even close by, you heard the sirens. that would give you a real indication of the size of the explosion and the american networks -- they reported the numbers early on. we didn't. we waited for confirmation from the manchester police. between 19-20 people killed.

about an hour, hour and a half. the counterterrorism forces are sharing some information with the americans but certainly they have been ahead of it. "los angeles times" is saying now officially that it was a suicide bomb. that has not come from any u.k. agency but certainly if they are being given information by the american counterterrorism agencies, they seem to have got it right this evening. >> unnamed u.s. officials, a suicide bomber is suspected of carrying out this attack. my heart goes out to the families who have lost loved ones -- >> shepard: we were sort of ahead of the game here or ahead of the reporting in the united states and realized early that there had been a terror attack.

it's authorities were being quoted, multiple authorities by the "los angeles times" saying that this was a suicide bomber. that has been thinking from the beginning. arenas in the united kingdom, they don't have trash receptacles. there's not really a place to put things like this. that dates back to the ira attacks, that have been going on or did go on for 20 years. you don't find a lot of trash receptacles for this very reason. instead, it's believed this was a suicide bomber. authorities got there and saw the remains of people and suggested to them but in fact, this had been a suicide bomber. the latest from the hospitals, the vast majority of those people who have been taking hospitals suffered shrapnel wounds. there may have been nails in this suicide bomb. and that these shrapnel wounds were similar to war wounds as the metal would heat in the explosion. the detonation of the explosion, the nails would melt down.

inside and onto people's bodies. the death count at 19. the injury count at 50 although we believe the entry count will go up because there are people who have just been admitted to hospitals. everyone stopped and all talking stopped. someone who wrote direct message on twitter. everybody was running and screaming. screaming evacuate. another from the "los angeles times" ." an explosion. she's 15 years old. it seemed to come from near the entrance of the theater. where the audience streamed towards the exit, perhaps 2 minutes after ariana grande left the stage. everyone started screaming and running the other way towards the exits. a huge area huge ariana grande fan, she came to the concert with her mother. she said she grabbed her mom's hand and started running. following a lot of others towards the exit. police were everywhere, trying to clear the area, she said. another witness was there with two of his friends.

he's 19 years old. he sent everybody started sprinting and grabbing each other in a phone interview. quoting, i saw people lying on the grass and their heads were bleeding. others reported seeing multiple bodies outside. this comes to us from the daily mail, the blood, the sound of body parts, it will never leave my mind set a witness on the horrific scene at manchester arena. let's go to new video outside the hospital now. if we could roll that. these are victims being brought into the hospital we have that queued up just a little bit wrong. victims going in there. these are pictures from the scene. abby mullen from north lincolnshire, nearby, saying a bomb or explosion went off. just centimeters in front of me she said. people skin and faces were everywhere. including my hair and on my bac

back. i'm still finding bits of god knows what in my hair. he never, ever expect these things to happen but it could happen to anybody. quoting that sound and those running around clueless with body parts, bits of skin missing will not leave my mind anytime soon. or the minds of those involved. sky news on scene. let's listen. >> shrapnel injuries. >> apologies, jason. continue, what were you saying? >> some of the people coming out who have been talking to loved ones inside the hospital, two teenagers came out with their mother. they'd gone for a concert with their grandfather. their grandfather was on the lower tier. they were on the upper tier. there's a lot of emotion here. lot of people coming out very sad. coming out in tears with their families.

the pair of teenagers that came out with their mother, their grandfather had been on the lower tier. he had been in the room when the explosion had happened. he had been hit by shrapnel. he had a wound he staying in overnight. they had spoken him. , they are obviously very shaken. they were out to get out quickl quickly. potentially forms of shrapnel have been injuring people. shrapnel through their foot. that does seem to be the case. consistent with that. whether it was a nail bomb, we don't know at this stage. a lot of people. ambulances have been coming in and out. taxis now going in to see their loved ones. people on their phones, to work out the whereabouts of a friend.

confusion. the early stages, some people do not yet know on what is happening to everybody. >> the chief constable of manchester police is expected to give a statement from the steps of their headquarters. at about 2:40 a.m. at less than half an hour we understand. no doubt, they will give more details if they can. this has real significance for the cabinet members who may attend -- >> shepard: we are getting information from a deputy advisor to president trump. sebastian gorka. tweeting... it was four years ago today that a british army soldier was killed by muslim extremists in downtown london.

he was stabbed and attacked to death with a knife and a cleaver on may 22nd, 2013. the tweet from gorka is as follows... dates matter to jyoti terrace. over time, we have learned. a former cia director who is covered many items like this is live with a sunset tonight. your thoughts? >> things are kind of coming to a head. i think the radical islamists have decided to pick up the pace and we will probably see some more. we now have a president who is pretty straightforward that he is at war with them. he's not going to soft pedal that.

we haven't had a situation like that. in the eight years of the obama administration, -- >> shepard: president obama fought a number of wars and certainly didn't say that he wanted to win none. >> he didn't say that he didn't want to win them but that's the way he behaved. seems to me that that's pretty straightforward. >> shepard: we don't know what this is. we are led to believe by authorities in manchester that this was a single person with a single bomb. they have not described any motive to this. though there have been widespread reports of terror alerts across the region, sending out a warning to americans traveling to europe to remain vigilant. stay away from large gathering places where there would be lots of tourists were big crowds. tonight on may 22nd, it happened. >> radical islamists who go this

way. this is what they did in boston at the marathon. 2-3 years ago. that was a commemoration of a date. the beginning of the american revolution, lexington and concorde. this is sort of similar at the discotheque in paris, months back. i think they decided to move out to pick up the pace. i could be wrong. >> shepard: it could be a lone wolf who made this decision for his or her own reasons. >> right. but to kill all these other people, usually there is some ideology kicking around. >> shepard: that certainly could be true and if i were a dependent on this stage, i would say yeah, that's fine. but i am not. the news organization that is fox news that's reporting is we don't know who this was because at this point, we can't. >> it sort of like saying the

race is not always to the swift but that's the way to bet. here, it may be something other than radical islamists terrorism. but it looks pretty specific sus right now. >> shepard: so far, we are waiting for live report from the authorities on scene. at this point, the authorities have said they are treating this as a terrorist attack and they are. trace gallagher with the latest as we have it. trace, to you. >> a couple of things. ariana grande, people have been talking to tmc. they're reporting she's thinking about canceling her show on thursday night. that might've been a foregone conclusion. rather the end of her show, she is fine. she walked behind the curtain at about 10:35 p.m. that's when the first calls started coming in about this explosion. as we were talking, it was very confusing for everybody because everybody who was inside was streaming out kept saying they

heard something. they heard the explosion. they felt the explosion but they didn't see anything. they didn't see any smoke. the videotaped taken inside the arena and then suddenly, within 30-45 minutes, we got these reports of multiple dead. and yet nobody was inside the arena saw anything of the sort. we saw some people walking out of the arena with minor injuries and then it fits together when they said it was in the foyer of the arena outside. that's when the arena came out a short time later saying it was not inside the foyer, it was not in the lobby. it was outside by the box office area. that's where the explosion was. those witnesses outside can clearly see in. they saw a number of bodies on the ground. they saw a number of people injured and wounded. as you said, shop, the hospital started seeing these shrapnel wounds. it's an indicator that this was some sort of suicide bomb.

maybe attacked with males. it kind of goes back to what we saw in turkey at the airport there and at brussels, where one is to kill as many people as possible but the diversion, putting as many people as you can to another area and then there is a second explosion. that was the fear police had here. maybe there were two devices ase and puts them in a different direction and then you have the second explosion. as we reported, that second device to turn out to be only a bag full of old clothes. what happened in the paris attacks, in the arena and so forth there will be a number of reported devices. they will check those out throughout the evening in manchester. theresa may just tweeted, this is big for politics because she

was hoping to gain a majority in the upcoming midterm election there. that looks like it may not happen. it's you have to be seen if this is a result of that. as you can continue going forward here, the big emphasis is on who will claim on stability? did our knowledge, nobody has. who will claim responsibility? we will get a lot of information coming out of manchester but the news continues to trickle out, shep. this was filled with teenagers. this area. we do not yet have any type of a breakdown of those who were killed or injured. what their ages might have been. as we believe, they were leaving the arena. those people because the show had just ended. it's unclear if the box office was open at that time. we know ariana grande was having a thursday concert. it's unclear if the box office was open and if people were purchasing tickets for another show.

this is things we will look for in the press conference, coming just minutes from now. >> shepard: thank you so much. just 18 minutes now from that scheduled news conference. theresa may has just issued a statement. we are working to establish the full details of what's being treated by police as an appalling terrorist attack. our thoughts are with the victims and families of those who have been affected. if this is in fact a terror attack is authorities believe it is it would be the worst on u.k. soil since july 2005. there've been a half-dozen terrorist attacks since '05. it was july 7th, 2005, a coordinated series of suicide attacks in london when three bombs exploded on an underground train and one double-decker bus exploded. 52 people were killed. a 700 were injured. the bombs are detonated by four british infidel terrace.

two weeks later, four more bombings connected -- unconnected with those earlier in july were attempted but they failed to detonate. two years later in june '07, two unexploded car bombs were found in london. near a royal artillery baruch in london. that's the one that happened on this same date four years ago. then december 2015, a man with a knife stabbed a number of people at a subway station shouting "this is for syria." a controlled explosion after a passenger spotted an unattended bag filled with wires and alarm clocks. a train line, i a suspect was later detained. on the tuber subway station. july 21st, attempted bombing.

march of this year, five people including a london police officer, who was stabbed, and the alleged assailant were killed in a terror attack that saw more than 40 people injured outside the british parliament building in an act described as a sick and depraved by the british prime minister theresa may and then tonight, this. outside the concert hall in manchester. thousands of young kids and others they are to see ariana grande, the u.s. pop sensation. the explosion happened and is believed to be a suicide bombing. 19 confirmed that and more than 50 confirmed injured. the city conciliate there, the arena was "a very easy target." where young people were enjoying music. everyone in this city is in shock, seeing how some of these

young people are so young. coming in now from sky news in great britain. let's listen. >> as a ariana grande was singing her last song, dangerous woman, my daughter was tired and said can she just go outside now? we went to the bathroom and then we said let's go now before the rest. we walked towards the car park is. there was a row of stewards and align, they were very threatene friendly. and they said this is it your best way, girls. as i turn around, boom. one loud noise. so, the first ten seconds, we thought about it. we just walked with haste. then a gentleman said, ron!

so we ran. we walked quickly down the stairs. that's when people were flooding through the concert doors. the sound was definitely coming from the main foyer. i'm exiting the building, we then saw crowds of people and children devastated. we went to the car, ten seconds away. as soon as we got to the car, you could smell the burning. coming out then, there were people around. the children with devastated. we could see police running in front of our car. with huge red backpacks on them. running into the building. we did manage to get away all

within about 3-4 minutes. but it was devastating. >> reporter: did you see anyone yourself who had been injured or were you too far away from that foyer area you were describing? >> we didn't see anybody. just traumatized people. we didn't see it but you could smell it. we only heard one explosion. >> shepard: one of the early witnesses talking to sky news the last hour and a half or so. on the phone with us is aaron mcdougle. thank you for joining us. what did you see and hear? >> we only heard one explosion as well. we were on the far side. >> shepard: erin mcdougle. >> caller: over from where the explosion happened. it was just a big rush. feels like a big blur now. we just heard one big shaking explosion. from the left side of the hall. and then just everybody running

in the opposite direction. it was just horrendous. >> shepard: did people around you seem to have any sense of what had happened? we heard of this announcement. that everything was okay, it may have been just balloons and chairs falling. >> caller: i initially thought it was a door being slammed. like a big concert hall door. but it wasn't. everyone jumped to the conclusion around me that it was a bomb. i was trying to stay calm. when he got out, it was pretty obvious it was a bomb just by this mall. and the carnage of people running around. >> shepard: you saw injured people? >> caller: i didn't see anyone injured. just a lot of people panicking and running. i feel terrible for anybody who got caught up in that. >> shepard: erin mcdougle on the line with us. i know the main entrance, the

foyer where they sell the tickets, that's the area where this generally happened. were you sent out a different exit? >> caller: yeah, we were. opposite from that. we got out of a different exit. the way the venue was shaped, we had to go past where the bomb exploded. just to get out. the security diverted us all one way. >> shepard: what were you able to see in and around that area as you exited? >> caller: just saw a lot of security. a lot of people crying, the kids being very scared. >> shepard: aaron, how would you describe the security issue? >> caller: the security was good, i had my batch bag check. i had to throw out any water on me. i don't know how someone could get in like that. >> shepard: we are not even sure that somebody did get in.

the reports are varied. some say it was just outside the arena and the blast came inside. erin, i should tell you just about 10 minutes from now, 2:40 a.m., 9:40 p.m. on united states time, they move this press conference. could you tell just by looking, this is where it happened? or was it much more ambiguous? >> caller: once we got further out of the venue, it was like yes, this is where it happened. the front of the entrance where the ticket stand was. i heard that some people were saying it was in the train station, adjacent to the venue? but overall, i couldn't really see much just because of how many people were there. >> shepard: we think those reports happened because some of the walking wounded ended up not

train station. it's only a minute walk away, isn't it? >> caller: yes, it is. >> shepard: they shut down those trains. thanks so much for being with us. i am glad you are safe. we appreciate it. emergency services are still working at the scene of the incident at manchester arena. they sent out a tweet in the last minute or so asking the public to avoid the area. this is an enormous crime scene. joining us now, fred flight, now a senior vice president at we t know exactly what has happened. the police believe a suicide bomber has killed 19 and injured more than 50. it should be a surprise to us that lone wolves will try the sort of thing. they have been warning us for quite some time. >> i think that is right, shep. you have to be careful not to say things. based by the evidence.

i think we can guess on who may have been behind this. there are certain things we have to look at. if this was a suicide bombing, that could mean it was part of a terrorist cell that has to be looked into. whether this person was radicalized, how is not done. this could have been someone who fought in syria and came back. there about 8,000 of these syria fighters. there's no evidence but we have to look at all these possibilities. >> shepard: certainly the forensic evidence will give them a lot of information. it was our belief in the early going that they establish so quickly this was a suicide bombing because if you are an investigator have done such thing, it can be painfully obvious and pretty quickly, right? >> yes and it's interesting the bomb took place outside the entrance of the facility. so the bomber would not have to go to near security. where people were filing out of the event. that shows a certain degree of planning.

in my view, between isis terrace and homegrown terrorists, i don't see a big difference here. we know that isis tries to either direct or inspire acts of terror, if, in fact, isis was behind us. >> shepard: as he said so beautifully, we have no i dia if it was isis. we've just gotten a dispatch from the authorities there. quoting at the scene of this horrific incident, don't call 999 unless you really need us. it's 999 there in the way that it's 911 here. especially the families who lost their loved ones, our thoughts go out with you. utterly heartbreaking. you mentioned this idea of security and where you put it. if you go to certain airports overseas. where the security coordinate is a way from baggage handling --

you get a screening before you can take your bags in. what the authorities have told us no matter where you put the screening, you can always have the bad guy in that location -- tonight might be one of those examples. he or she could have waited until everybody was leaving. that was the time frame tonight. no matter how hard you try, it can be moved. it can't be stopped. >> that's right, where do you and the security? in a free society, we can protect every inch of the city. this individual may have been on a terrorism watch list. that's something we have to look at. >> shepard: indeed. life witness information coming in from sky news in the u.k. this is life. let's listen. >> is on the news. >> reporter: when you look out of the windows, described to

me exactly what you saw? >> i looked out the window and saw about five ambulances and beyond that, about six police cars. six fire bands. that was going towards the aren arena. and there were a few police car cars. >> reporter: what happened next? >> after that, we saw emergency services coming to the scene. i looked on my phone on the news. and saw a picture on facebook. smoke on top of the arena. thinking that's more than just a speaker blowing up. which people were presuming it was. >> reporter: when you looked, did you see anyone coming out of the arena? >> i saw people outside my

house, my apartments. these pink balloons. but we thought there must be something serious. i didn't see anyone injured but i saw people running towards my house. away from the arena. going down south of manchester. there must be something serious if you're running away. >> reporter: steve, thanks for talking to us. thank you for your time. steve crosby there, whose house is an apartment that backs onto the arena. i will show you the scene here. down to the main square, past the tram platform. we can see a police. a police van. beyond that, some ambulances.

beyond that, to the left -- the print works, for anyone who knows manchester, that's where the pubs, the cinema is. left of that is the arena. he said he heard the bang at 25 to 11. that concert ended at around 10:30 p.m. people were starting to leave as the lights went on and they heard the bang, the explosion. some people described people hitting the ground. the melee, the chaos of trying to get out of the arena. we see some people crossing, trying to get through this police tape. excuse me, would i be able to have a quick chat? or are you the concert?

>> shepard: fred flight, here with us now. senior vice president at the center for security policy. you were saying earlier it's important not to get ahead of ourselves and find out what we are working with before we move forward. it certainly, we consider how things are done and how much security precautions are taken. the difference for instance -- in my recent travels to paris and rome versus england, the differences are significant. long guns increase. very heavy security. in london, it's frankly quite different. >> that's exactly right. the british have been lucky, i think, frankly. they have not been the subject of terror attacks since 2they w. one things, the attacker was known to the police all too often. if that's the case here, there may be an intelligence failure that needs to be tracked down. >> shepard: i guess we will know soon enough. we are expecting just a couple of minutes from now the first

live organized news conference where we believe authorities are going to give us the exact of what they have so far. what they can release. fred, how much consideration should there be for security in the early morning? it's 20 minutes before 3:00 in the morning. the morning rush begins in london in 2-2.5 hours. what about a copycat or it might be part of something larger? >> this is something we know isis and al qaeda have done before. they have tried to have multiple or terror attacks. i imagine there will be extremely tight security throughout tomorrow. >> shepard: i appreciate you being here at this early hour. sky news, the fox news' sister network for the united kingdom. across greater europe with whom we work very closely. let's listen.

>> a football stadium into a network of tunnels come out to the fresh air. something happened within that middle ring which is actually public land. that is where we are told the explosions happened. or explosion. we are not quite sure yet. there's still some information to pick fruit, exactly how many people were out at the time when the explosion happened. around an hour ago, there was a controlled explosion not far from here. just around the corner from manchester cathedral. a very loud bang. we were warned about it but it was just abandoned clothing in a bag. heightened state of anxiety and security. that package was dealt with. it ended up being nothing. it was not a secondary device. when i was driving to mancheste manchester, we got some pictures

perhaps we can show you. a car that had been abandoned on crossroads. again, it looked very suspiciou suspicious. they called police dogs in. they went inside. there was a huge amount of security around the car. that car was cleared. there been some incidents connected to this which could have been much more serious than they turned out to be. i'll step out again. just to show you the police van, the ambulances have moved now. what we have seen in the last hour or two is lots of ambulances. coming into the cordoned area. going to hospitals around the manchester area. >> shepard: these items are brand-new, first from the governor of new york. andrew cuomo, i am heartbroken

by the horrific explosion in manchester and as a precaution,w enforcement will step up security and patrols. with history as our guide, the subway stations and train stations, bus congregation areas in new york city will have heightened security. if nothing else, we are letting you know that we are on this. i'm guessing big cities across the nation -- you might see the same sort of thing. i've also gotten an interesting bit of information from the bbc, radio manchester. which give us an an idea of the smell we have been hearing. we came out of the arena. we could see people running down the stairs. i grabbed my sisters head and ducked her down into the chairs because i could see hundreds of girls running down the stairs. there was no way out. i ring my boyfriend saying i don't know what to do. he said try to get out as quick as you can. we come to the foyer and there was smoke everywhere and it

smelled of dirty gas. i can't describe it. i don't know what it was. when we finally got out of there, there are people lying everywhere. they had bandages on their heads. my 12 year at sister grabbed onto me and said i love you. it was horrible. a smell of fuel and these reports of shrapnel type injuries. this all points to some type of suicide palmer. not officials in great britain but u.s. officials working in coordination with united kingdom counterparts saying they believe this is a suicide bomber. we have the newspaper cover? for those in the control room, this is the cover of the manchester evening news. terror at the arena, at least 19 killed in blast. horror. teenagers fleet and panic from gig. manchester's night of agony.

this paper is being printed now. 17 minutes before 2:00 in the morning. before 3:00 in the morning, eastern time. british summertime is kicked in. great britain is five hours ahead of us here on the east coast. the morning paper, which is titled the evening news, the manchester evening news come out with a special edition. nbc news has been leading a lot of the reporting tonight. from u.s. officials briefed by u.k. officials, this is according to a nightly news tweet. forensic evidence including a body indicated it was a suicide bomb attack in the manchester area. this is the most definitive coming from nbc news. u.s. officials briefed by u.k. officials say forensic evidence including a body indicates

suicide bombing at the manchester arena. we have no reports of any organization claiming responsibility for this. it would be very early for us to ascribe this to any organization. for many reasons, the first of which is -- we don't know the facts yet. no news organization should get ahead of those facts. you can tell you about some dates. four years ago today, there was an attack in southeast london. it was related to events in syria. at any rate, that attack holds a special date i suppose, may 22nd for some. it has been suggested by one of president trump's advisors that this could be related to that. sebastian gorka tweeted this a while ago... manchester explosion happens on the fourth anniversary. dates matter to gee hottie terrace. it comes 30 hours after a speech

in riyadh, saudi arabia by the president. nothing official from the president or his entourage tonight. for this early morning now. in jerusalem, where the president is, he was with israeli prime minister benjamin and yahoo. at an event last evening. certainly, the middle of the night there. nothing from the president at this hour. we were expecting this news conference which has been slightly delayed and understandably so, we believe they will give us this confirmation that they are now under the working suspicion that this was a suicide bomber. if they have an idea about origins, maybe trace gallagher will get to something like that. that is left for speculation. we don't want to engage in that, trace. working to get some new information together, the british prime minister -- we've just gotten this in, theresa may

will share a meeting with the cobra committee tomorrow morning or this morning i guess, and united kingdom. a statement has come out from ten downing street. the prime minister's residence, confirming that they are treating an incident at the manchester arena as an appalling terrorist attack. they are working on that at the moment. i should tell you that the mayor is banding together. the official twitter account for the greater manchester is now indicating the following. follow missing manchester, demonstrating the truth spirit of our city in such a devastating tragedy. right there, banding together. getting hotel rooms to get it. people offering up their homes. a real show of community spirit, trace. >> it is, shep. the heart rending thing -- there've been no confirmation but you look online and you have families that are now looking

for young children. as young as six, seven, eight years old who have nothing in contact with their parents yet. this was 2.5 hours after the incident. that's also very troubling. we spoke earlier about the number, 19 dead. 50 wounded. we think that might be adjusted upwards. the number of wounded. as time goes on. we don't have any type of breakdown that might be with the people who are on scene who might have been injured and killed in this, as far as ages go. what we certainly do know is that ariana grande -- she attracts a vast number of children. of young girls between the ages of 6-28 years old. that was, according to many witnesses, that was the largest share of the audience. young children, mostly young girls. you are seeing reports coming out about them being involved in

them being missing. we would never show that until it's confirmed but just the thought, if you are a parent in manchester right now and your young daughter is missing has got to be excruciating. you have all the similarities, the previous terrorist attacks and what the intent might be here. there has been no call as you said earlier, shep. there's been no call of responsibility on this terror attack was but we expect during this news conference, they wille some information coming out about more concerning the suicide bombing you are talking about. now it comes out that you have these hospitals, there were shrapnel wounds. clearly nail wounds that show that this was some sort of nail type bomb. now you have u.s. officials telling multiple news

organizations that they do believe this was a suicide bomber and right now, we believe it was only one suicide bomber. those who have not joined us in the last 30-40 minutes, the potential of a second device -- one was exploded. a loud boom. they told people not to be concerned. it turned out to be nothing but a bag of abandon clothing. we might see more about of course. if you talk about the injured and killed being hit by this bomb, there's also a video where you see inside the arena. there was great panic inside. there were people being trampled inside this arena because of whatever that explosion was outside. they first thought it was on the right-hand side of the stage. they thought it was balloons. they thought it was a speaker that blew. there was no smoke. you can tell what was going on. in this climate, where you know that terrorism is a real part of life, there was some trampling

and now we know there were people injured. we don't know the severity of the injured and that trampling incident inside the arena, shep give the injured coming out inside the arena who are trampled. of course you have the dead and the injured that were outside by the ticket box office. between the train station and the manchester arena. >> shepard: trace gallagher, life with us. thank you so much. this happened at 10:40 p.m. or so, british summertime. 5:40 p.m. our time, here on the east coast. it has been for hours. just moments ago, ambulances were still taking injured people away. from the manchester arena. that from eyewitness reporters just outside that arena, reporting on to the last few minutes. pbc correspondent in northern england, spent time in nairobi, athens, he seen a lot here.

ed thomas of the bbc. ambulances are is still injured people away. it has been a horrible night for people there. the next order of business was to have been a news conference by authorities on scene. we are still expecting that. it was originally scheduled for 20 minutes ago. they are just a little bit behind. when it happens, we will take you there live. senior policy advisor for the counter extremism project. it has all the hallmarks, i suppose it could be related to syria and any number of things. manchester police believe they have an attack tonight. now that the figure out who did it, why, and how to stop the next one. >> there's a lot right now we know and a lot we don't know. it has all the hallmarks of the terrorist attack. it may have been a suicide bombing. it happened at a large public event. a concert.

we sought here in 19 people killed. probably targeting young people. making it even more horrific. having said that, there's a lot we don't know. it has a hallmarks of a potential isis attacks. we have seen isis online praising the attack. but we don't know if it was a remote-controlled attack it, may be isis inspired or directed it. we don't know if it's somebody part of a larger cell acting in coordination with other individuals or a lone wolf. there's a lot we don't know but it does seem to be at the early times terrorism. we don't know if it was a suicide bomber but again, it does have the hallmarks of a horrific terrorist attack. >> shepard: one thing that might work an investigator favor, no doubt -- the united kingdom has the largest

network of closed-circuit television. most likely in the world. they have more cameras per person then i think any nation on the planet. this is such a huge traffic area with so much police and so much security. at the possibility that they would have video of this suspect or even of this incident, i would say based on what i know about their security and procedures, it's quite high. >> you are 100% correct. in addition to that, you have a massive concert hall filled with young people on their iphones. there's going to be footage, accidental footage of the explosive itself going off. potentially multiple examples of footage of the suspect. if the suspect was roaming around prior to the attack or individuals had their cell phones on. some video has been put out on social media. investigators will have a lot to look at. this is a public setting.

people with their phones on during the attack itself. undoubtedly, it's going to take a little while to put the pieces together. this is happened a few hours ago. it just has the signs of a terrorist attack. we've seen it as a problem in europe. it's not surprising that a concert will be targeted. >> shepard: our viewers, everything affects an election. our viewers may remember that the united kingdom's prime minister, theresa may, called for a snap election coming up in june. that snap election -- politically oriented, she might be able to capture a number of seats in parliament for her party and have a little more power within the government there. sky news is now reporting that the prime minister's campaign has now been suspended. the sort of thing ripples -- when you're talking about lives lost, it's a minor thing in the grand scheme of things especially if you have someone who has been injured there. but this could very well affect

the course of human events. >> terrorism can always effect the course of events. which investigators will look at. a lot of times dates are significant. anniversaries. there's a lot of attention on the british politics. speeches that were made by president trump about counter extremism lately. there could be more microlevel triggers. perhaps we don't know who this individual was. if he or she was in contact with other individuals. perhaps as part of a cell. and has been planned for a while. what investigators are really going to be focused in on right now -- is there any imminent threat in any other area in manchester, london, nearby? was this individual in contact with anyone else? sometimes you see these attacks are part of a larger plot. or they can inspireycat types. which is also what investigators are worried about when things

like this happen. >> shepard: cara, stay with us if you would. we've been getting first witness accounts. some of which are just noted in newspapers in the bbc and the rest. this is one in particular interest, a woman named jane pearson. 46 years old. high school english language teacher. she had gone to the concert with her daughter, rachel, who is 21. she took her there for a birthday present. she told the p.a. that the arena was packed full of children. she was in a block of seats next to where the explosion occurred. she said i was just at the actual final moment of the concert. then all of a sudden, this loud explosion followed by a ton of smoke. coming up from the left of me. then just absolute chaos. this belief. everybody running over each other. not quite knowing what had gone on. mad chaotic rush to the nearest

exit. lots of people crying and wailing. quoting there were people bleeding and lots of people being separated. very scary. we believe there have been fatalities. just a terrible thing. who could do this at a concert where their children and families? it is just unbelievable. she added, i just feel for everybody who has been injured and those who have been killed. a woman who had given her 21-year-old a birthday present for an ariana grande concert. what we believe in the largest arena in europe. it was 10:40 p.m., the last song had played. to beat the traffic, or go to the tram. then all of a sudden, this loud noise for the box office was. people began to scatter. in the early going on the public address system, it was the balloons and maybe some chairs fell because there were these

enormous pink balloons that were part of the stagecraft. it was only moments later the people began to realize that wasn't it at all. some left to other exits and probably never saw any of this but those who went out the main exit, the one that led down into the tube station -- or off to the trams at the right or the pickup area, all of them sought. some of the witnesses with whom we have spoken tonight, as they were running down the escalators and trying to make their way out of the building, they noticed as they described it carnage in front of the building. police now describe seeing the remains of the bomb and the remains of a human. whom they believe the device was trapped. it is the u.s. authority to tell reporters that they believe this was a suicide bomber. when all the exiting was happening.

conflicting maximum carnage oute building. that was described to us by the witnesses who saw it happen. i will be back at 11:00 eastern. right now, "hannity" on fox news channel. >> welcome to "hannity." 19 are dead. around 50 injured during an ariana grande concert in manchester, england. police are treating this incident as an act of terrorism and they are expecting to hold a news conference this hour. authorities are advising people to avoid the area around the arena and the train station that is nearby is also closed. concertgoers describe hearing a loud explosion or explosions at the event ended, causing a massive panic and one eyewitness is saying he saw people lying on the ground covered in blood. new video appears to capture sound of this blast. listen.