A Calgary-based artist who was playing her own show in the city of Manchester on Monday night says she’s filled with shock and disbelief following the explosion outside Manchester Arena that claimed the lives of 22 people.
The explosion, which killed 22 and injured dozens more after an Ariana Grande concert, happened just a few hundred yards from where Sarah Beth Keeley was playing her own show in a smaller venue.
When she left and started to learn of what had transpired outside, she said panic and shock began to come in waves for her and those around her.
“It just breaks my heart,” she said in a Skype interview with Global News on Tuesday.
Keeley said they could hear helicopters and sirens outside, and it was then that panicked-looking staff told them to stay inside and locked the doors.
“You just can’t even believe how many things go through your mind, and I’m convinced that tonight I’m even still in shock,” Keeley said.
READ MORE: Manchester Arena explosion: 8-year-old girl among 22 bombing victims
Keeley and the rest of the people in the venue stayed inside for about an hour until they felt safe enough to move on to their hotels and homes.
The hotel they stayed at was only a block away from Manchester Arena, Keeley said, and a main artery for police and ambulances going to and from the scene, as well as fleeing concert-goers and their families.
READ MORE: Manchester Holiday Inn, Premier Inn shelter kids and adults amid reported explosion
“It was just constant back and forth, obviously going and taking injured back out to the hospitals,” she said.
Fifty-nine injured people were treated at six different hospitals across the city, Greater Manchester Police said early Tuesday morning.
LISTEN: Sarah Beth Keeley talks about her experience in Manchester on Monday night with News Talk 770’s Angela Kokott.
The so-called Islamic State group (ISIS) has since claimed responsibility for the attack.
“There were people clearly, visibly looking shocked. One lady was outside with her face in her hands, crying and looking for her daughter,” Keeley said.
The manager of the hotel Keelely stayed at allowed many panic-stricken people into the lobby to feel safe and try to communicate with loved ones.
‘I have an empathy for her’
Keeley said that on top of feeling heartbreak and sadness for the concert-goers and their families, she was also thinking of fellow-artist Ariana Grande.
Grande tweeted that she was “so so sorry” after the attack, and that she felt “broken” from the bottom of her heart.
“Coming from the heart, as an artist as well, you’re not responsible but you feel like that happened.” Keeley said. “And then maybe somehow she must be thinking, ‘is it because it was my show? Is it because it was me? is it because of the demographic of my show?'”
“And still at the end of the day, it has nothing to do with her.
“I have an empathy for her as an artist.”
Keeley finishes up her tour in the UK on Friday, with a final show on Friday in Birmingham. She expects to return home to Calgary in early June.
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