Australia’s prime minister has told the Australian Parliament that the deadly explosion during Ariana’s Grande’s concert at Manchester Arena appeared to be a “brutal attack on young people everywhere.”
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said on Wednesday the British were treating the blast that killed at least 19 people and injured more than 50 as a terrorist attack, although its cause was unknown.
Turnbull says: “This incident, this attack, is especially vile, especially criminal, especially horrific because it appears to have been deliberately directed at teenagers.”
He added: “This is an attack on innocents. Surely there is no crime more reprehensible than the murder of children. This is a direct and brutal attack on young people everywhere, on freedom everywhere.”
He says Australian diplomats were working to discover if any victim was Australian.
In Tokyo, a spokesman for the Japanese government condemned the attack.
Yoshihide Suga, the government’s chief cabinet secretary, says: “If this is a terrorist attack, such abhorrent acts of terrorism cannot be justified for any reason, and Japan firmly condemns such an act of terrorism. I would like to express my heartfelt condolences to the victims and families of the deceased and my prayers to a swift recovery for the wounded. Japan stands in solidarity with the people of the U.K.”