Supporters of the Islamic State group (ISIS) are celebrating the explosion at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, UK that has killed at least 19 people and left another 50 injured, reports Newsweek.
Social media accounts linked to ISIS supporters were posting messages supporting the deadly incident Monday night at the sold-out 21,000-capacity Manchester Arena.
While the group has has not claimed responsibility for the explosion, nor have any others, but police said they were investigating the incident as a terrorist attack.
The Independent reports that Twitter accounts affiliated to Isis have used hashtags referring to the blast to post celebratory messages, with some users encouraging similar attacks elsewhere.
One pro-ISIS post, highlighted by co-founder of private intelligence firm Search International Terrorist Entities Intelligence Group (SITE) Rita Katz, said Kill him everywhere, Britain and England and Manchester and UK and Britain. Other accounts were linking to the first statement about the attacks by Greater Manchester Police.
Another ISIS supporter tweeted: “It seems that bombs of the British airforce over children of Mosul and Raqqa has just came back to #Manchester,” one user named Abdul Haqq said on Twitter, in reference to the Iraqi and Syrian cities held by the militants where a US-led coalition, of which Britain is a member, is conducting air strikes.
Pro-ISIS users called the incident a successful and surprising blow to Britain. It was framed as retaliation for airstrikes which Britain has been carrying out on ISIS targets in Iraq and Syria.
