Desperate parents rush to find children after bombing at Ariana Grande concert
Manchester Arena, the largest indoor arena in Europe, opened in 1995 and is a popular concert and sporting venue.
Desperate parents and friends used social media to search for loved ones while the wounded were being treated at six hospitals across Manchester.
"Everyone pls share this, my little sister Emma was at the Ari concert tonight in #Manchester and she isn't answering her phone, pls help me," said one message posted alongside a picture of a blonde girl with flowers in her hair.
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Paula Robinson, 48, from West Dalton about 40 miles east of Manchester, said she was at the train station next to the arena with her husband when she felt the explosion and saw dozens of teenage girls screaming and running away from arena.
“We ran out,” Robinson told Reuters. “It was literally seconds after the explosion. I got the teens to run with me.”
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Robinson took dozens of teenage girls to the nearby Holiday Inn Express hotel and tweeted out her phone number to worried parents, telling them to meet her there. She said her phone had not stopped ringing since her tweet.
"Parents were frantic running about trying to get to their children," she said. "There were lots of lots children at Holiday Inn."
WATCH: Two explosions force Ariana Grande fans to evacuate Manchester Arena
EYEWITNESS: Bomb disposal team on the scene of explosions at Manchester Arena