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Journalism of Courage
Following the horrifying explosion at the Manchester Arena in the UK on Tuesday morning (India time), ISIS sympathisers have taken to Twitter to celebrate the inhuman attack that claimed the lives of at least 22 people, and left around 59 others injured. The Manchester Police is currently treating the blast as a possible ‘terrorist attack’, though no organisation has claimed responsibility for the blast yet. “This is currently being treated as a terrorist incident until police know otherwise”, read a quote from the police in a Sun report.
In the meantime, screenshots of a couple of messages that were tweeted around 4 hours before the attack took place have begun doing the rounds on social media websites such as Twitter. These tweets – from the account @owys663 – seem to predict the incident. In one tweet it says, “#ISLAMICSTATE #manchesterarena #UK #British ARE YOU FORGET OUR THREAT ? THIS IS THE JUST TERROR”, and another was an image with the hashtag #manchesterarena.
The unverified Twitter account has now been suspended, but screenshots of the messages are being shared on the micro-blogging site. The tweets started at 6.24pm on May 22, with another at 6.28pm and yet another at 6.32pm. The blast happened at around 10.35pm, local time.
https://twitter.com/Tab1Lambert/status/866804750368559105
https://twitter.com/Brooklynnm77/status/866904696446898176
The account later apparently posted this before being taken down again:
https://twitter.com/scottplee/status/866817063628754944
Other ISIS supporting groups have been posting celebratory tweets online, with some saying that the blast was meant to be revenge for Mosul airstrikes.
The blast took place shortly after American pop singer Ariana Grande finished her concert, and is suspected to have been carried out by a suicide attacker. Most of those affected by the blast were women and young children, teenagers who had gone to attend the concert. Local police and emergency services were immediately deployed to help the concert-goers.
The social media space, though, is buzzing with good Samaritans who have come forth offering help to those in distress. Much like the rally that followed previous world attacks, hashtags such as #roomformanchester and #Prayformanchester started trending, with people offering room and board and any kind of help that affected victims might need.
