Boris Johnson has praised the courage of the people of Manchester and the city's determination not to give in to hatred on the fifth anniversary of the terror attack at the Arena. The prime minister praised the city's reaction to the May 2017 atrocity, saying: "If the world could be a little more like... Manchester, it would be a much better place for us all."
Islamic State fanatic Salman Abedi killed himself and murdered 22 innocents when he detonated a huge improvised device in his backpack as mainly young concert-goers were leaving an Ariana Grande concert at 10.31pm on Monday, May 22, 2017.
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Writing for the M.E.N. Mr Johnson said: "Five years ago today thousands of people, many of them children, set off for the Manchester Arena to enjoy the kind of innocent, carefree evening that is the highlight of so many young lives.
"Twenty-two never came home. More than a thousand were injured, many of them seriously.
"Countless more still carry with them the trauma of what they experienced that night as unabashed joy turned to unbridled horror. Few crimes in recent memory have been quite as shocking, cowardly or despicable.
"Yet as the sun rose over the Pennines the next morning it was already clear that the absolute worst of times was bringing out the very best of Manchester.
"The speed and totality with which the people of that great city embraced those who were suffering. The vast sea of flowers and toys and balloons that flooded St Ann’s Square. The swarm of yellow and black worker bees that landed, almost overnight, on seemingly every surface.
"And in the five years since the city has carried that strength forward. We see it in the millions of pounds raised for victims and their families by survivors and other Mancunians alike.
"We see it in the defiance of groups like the Manchester Survivors Choir – celebrating life and finding solace in song, in a city long defined by its love of music.
"Most of all we see it in a city and a people who, five years on from this atrocity, don’t look back in anger but look forward in hope.
"And I can’t help but think that if the world could be a little more like that, a little more like Manchester, it would be a much better place for us all."
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