Manchester | Queen Elizabeth visits young survivors of concert blast

Queen Elizabeth II met yesterday with children injured in the Manchester concert bombing, consoling them and pronouncing the attack at an event attended by so many young people “wicked.”

The 91-year-old monarch visited Evie Mills, 14, Millie Robson, 15, and other youngsters recovering from severe shrapnel wounds at the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital.

“It’s dreadful. Very wicked, to target that sort of thing,” the queen told Evie and her parents.

Millie, wearing an Ariana Grande T-shirt, told the queen she had won VIP tickets to the pop star’s Monday night concert at Manchester Arena and been injured in the bombing attack after the end of the show. The teenager said she felt fortunate to have survived.

“I have a few, like, holes in my legs and stuff, and I have a bit of a cut, and my arm and just a bit here, but compared to other people I’m quite lucky really,” she said.

The queen broke her normal custom of wearing a matching outfit by visiting the children in a blue coat topped with a jaunty orange hat — as if to try to lighten the gloom.

Elizabeth told Millie she thought Ariana Grande was a “very good singer,” adding, “She sounds very, very good.”

Millie was one of 12 children under the age of 16 taken to Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital by ambulance after the blast that killed 22 people and the suspected bomber.

The families of a teenage couple killed in the bombing say the pair “wanted to be together forever and now they are.”

In a joint statement released through Manchester police, their families say 17-year-old Chloe Rutherford and 19-year-old Liam Curry were “perfect in every way for each other” and “inseparable.”

The families said: “On the night our daughter Chloe died and our son Liam died, their wings were ready but our hearts were not.”

Others confirmed dead yesterday included 14-year-
old Sorrell Leczkowski. Her family, who went to the Arena to collect her from the concert, said her grandmother is in intensive care and her mother is recovering from surgery.

Meanwhile, the police said an incident attended by officers and army bomb disposal teams in Manchester is now over and the area has been deemed safe.

Greater Manchester Police said officers and soldiers went to a street in Hulme, southwest of central Manchester, yesterday to deal with a possible suspicious package. MDT/AP