Children and students among the known 22 victims killed by Manchester suicide bomber

Students, children, and parents among the 22 dead

LONDON (AP) — The names of the 22 victims killed by a suicide bomber at a Manchester concert on Monday night have not been officially released, but here what’s known about them so far:

Michelle Kiss was a mother of three children, a loving wife, sister and daughter — and “family was her life,” her loved ones say.

In a statement released to Manchester police, her family said: “She has been taken away from us and all that love her in the most traumatic way imaginable.”

The Daily Mirror newspaper reported that Kiss attended Monday’s concert with her daughter.

Her family said: “We hope to draw from the courage and strength she showed in her life to get through this extremely difficult time.”

Her daughter was reported to be safe and was photographed being hugged by a police officer.
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Anoff-duty female police officer was among those killed at Manchester Arena in the bombing of the Ariana Grande concert.

Cheshire Police, the force she served with, confirmed her death on Wednesday but declined to provide further details.

British media reported that she was with her husband and two children, and that all three others were injured in the bombing.
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Jane Tweddle was a receptionist and well-loved member of the staff at the South Shore Academy in the northern English seaside town of Blackpool.

The academy’s principal, Jane Bailey, said tributes had poured in from parents, students and colleagues describing Tweddle as “bubbly, kind, welcoming, funny, generous.”

She said the mother of three daughters was “irreplaceable, much loved and will never be forgotten.”

Tweddle had reportedly gone to Manchester with a friend to pick up the friend’s daughter, who was attending the Ariana Grande concert.
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Teenager Nell Jones, who went to a school in the village of Holmes Chapel, south of Manchester, was described by a teacher as “a very popular girl, always smiling, always positive.”

Holmes Chapel Comprehensive School and Sixth Form College said police had confirmed Nell died at the scene of the bombing Monday at the Ariana Grande concert in Manchester.

Head teacher Denis Oliver said in a statement Wednesday that the school community was devastated by the news.

He quoted Nell’s teacher, David Wheeler, saying that her tutor group had been together since the transition from primary school: “It feels like they have lost a sister not a classmate.”

Oliver also confirmed that another Year 9 student, Freya Lewis, was badly injured in the attack.

Freya’s father, Nick Lewis, was quoted as saying that his daughter had undergone 10½ hours of surgery and was in a stable condition.

Thanking well-wishers, Lewis said: “Freya has been sewn, bolted, drilled and bandaged back together. It is going to be a long climb but we are on the first step.”
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A Manchester public relations company has paid tribute to Martyn Hett, its digital manager and a man who it said “loved life and celebrated it every day.”

Hett, reported to be 29, had appeared on the reality TV shows “Tattoo Fixers” and “Come Dine With Me.” His employer, Rumpus, said on its website that Hett had packed life “to the brim with his passions.”

The company says “he was taken from this world too soon, by forces we will never truly understand.”

Hett was among 22 people killed Monday night by a bombing after an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester.

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Teenager Olivia Campbell-Hardy, who went to a school near Manchester, was at the Ariana Grande concert in Manchester with a friend on Monday night.

Tottington High School in the town of Bury said the school community was “absolutely devastated and heartbroken” at the news Wednesday that Olivia was killed in the blast.

The school said Olivia, reportedly 15, had been with a friend who has since undergone surgery to treat injuries sustained in the explosion.

Her mother, Charlotte Campbell, who had been appealing online for news of Olivia, wrote in Facebook post early Wednesday: “RIP my darling precious gorgeous girl Olivia Campbell taken far far too soon, go sing with the angels and keep smiling mummy loves you so much.”

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A Polish couple who had come to collect their daughters from the concert in Manchester are among the dead, Poland’s foreign minister said Wednesday.

Witold Waszczykowski said the daughters — one a minor, one adult— were unharmed. He did not give the couple’s names but the daughter of Marcin and Angelika Klis has been publicly searching for her parents since the explosion.

A Facebook page “Remembering Marcin Klis” says he lived in the northern English city of York, worked for the York cars Taxi Service and came from the Polish town of Darlowo on the Baltic Sea.

In his latest entry from March 21, he shared a link from a protest in York against Uber car services. Entries from 2015 show him vacationing with family in Egypt.

Waszczykowski said another Polish citizen was wounded in the attack and had undergone surgery but “everything indicates that he will live.”

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This undated photo obtained by the Press Association on Tuesday, May 23, 2017, of Saffie Roussos, one of the victims of an attack at Manchester Arena, in Manchester, England, which left more than a dozen dead on Monday. A suicide bomber blew himself up as concert-goers left a show by the American singer Ariana Grande. (PA via AP)

Saffie Roussos, 8, is the youngest victim identified so far.

In a statement, the head teacher of the Tarleton Community Primary School that she attended in the village of Tarleton, Lancashire, described her as “simply a beautiful little girl in every aspect of the word. She was loved by everyone and her warmth and kindness will be remembered fondly. Saffie was quiet and unassuming with a creative flair.”

The head teacher, Chris Upton, said her death was “a tremendous shock to all of us.”

“The thought that anyone could go out to a concert and not come home is heartbreaking,” he said.

The schoolgirl had been at the concert with her mother, Lisa Roussos, and sister, Ashlee Bromwich, in her 20s, from Leyland, Lancashire. They are both now in separate hospitals being treated for injuries, friends said.

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Georgina Callander, a student, was a mega fan of Ariana Grande, with a picture of the two circulating on social media as her name emerged as the first confirmed victim.

Peter Rawlinson, deputy of the Bishop Rawstorne Church of England Academy in Croston, northwest of Manchester, where Callander was a former pupil, told The Associated Press that her family had confirmed the death.

Rawlinson says Callander “was academically a very gifted student, very hard-working. Just lovely to speak to.”

The school posted a photo of Georgina on its website, smiling and look smart in her school uniform. It said she died of wounds from the attack and described her as “a lovely young student who was very popular with her peers and the staff.”

Runshaw College in Leyland, Lancashire said Callander expressed “enormous sadness” at her death, saying she was on the second year of her health and social care course.

[Featured Image: AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti]

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This version corrects the name of the school that Olivia Campbell-Hardy attended to Tottington High School.