NEW YORK - US pop star Ariana Grande has suspended her world tour after a suspected terror attack at her concert in the British city of Manchester on Monday (May 22), the entertainment website TMZ reported, after the singer said she was "broken" over the incident.
An explosion which detonated just outside Manchester Arena where Grande was performing killed 22 people and wounded 59 others. British police said the attack was carried out by one man who also died at the arena. He had been carrying an improvised explosive device which he later detonated.
Grande had also been expected to perform in London on Thursday and Friday. However, TMZ, citing sources connected to the singer, said she had now decided to postpone her entire European tour, which also includes dates in Belgium, Poland, Germany and Switzerland.
In her first reaction to the incident, the 23-year-old wrote on Twitter late on Monday saying she was at a loss for words, AFP reported. "Broken," she wrote. "From the bottom of my heart, I am so so sorry. I don't have words," she added.
The tweet came about five hours after the explosion at the 21,000-capacity Manchester Arena.
A spokesman for the singer had earlier said she was doing okay following the blast, Fox news reported. "We are further investigating what happened," the spokesman added.
The Manchester show was part of Grande's world tour.
Monday's blast was the deadliest attack in Britain since 2005.
Grande, a former child star, is not known for her political views and draws an audience of teenagers and pre-teenagers.
Panic erupted when the concertgoers rushed to get out of the arena.
Mr Jonathan Yates told the MailOnline: "The concert had finished and the lights came on almost instantly. There was a bang, a weird bang.
"We sat on the floor level and it came from the higher seats, people were running and screaming. I heard five or six bangs that sounded like gunshots."
Manchester's Victoria train station, which is under the arena, was also evacuated.
The incident recalls another attack in November 2015 in Paris when gunmen stormed an Eagles Of Death Metal concert at the Bataclan theatre, killing 90 people.
The attackers were shot or blew themselves up when police raided the venue.
Grande is also scheduled to perform at the Formula 1 Singapore Airlines Singapore Grand Prix in September.
The Grammy-nominated pop singer has released three albums with each selling more than a million copies. In 2016, she was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine.
