Queen Elizabeth visits injured children in Manchester terrorist attack

  Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday visited several children injured in the terrorist attack at Manchester Arena, meeting patients and staff at the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital.

The royal family published photographs of the Queen meeting teenagers Millie Robson and Evie Mills, aged 15 and 14, and 12-year-old Amy Barlow at the hospital

Several children were among the 22 people who died in Monday’s attack at the end of a concert by US singer Ariana Grande, including an eight-year-old girl.

The queen earlier said she was “shocked by the death and injury in Manchester of so many people, adults and children, who had just been enjoying a concert.”

She paid tribute to the emergency staff and expressed “admiration for the way the people of Manchester have responded, with humanity and compassion, to this act of barbarity.”

In another development, the police said the arrests of eight suspects still in custody are “significant” in the investigation of the network behind the Manchester Arena terrorist attack.

Greater Manchester Police Chief Constable Ian Hopkins said said searches at several addresses in Manchester and other areas have yielded “very important” items assisting the investigation of Monday’s attack, which killed 22 people and injured dozens.

“I want to reassure people that the arrests that we have made are significant, and initial searches of premises have revealed items that we believe are very important to the investigation,” he said.

Hopkins said leaked forensic photographs published by the New York Times overnight had “caused much distress for families that are already suffering terribly with their loss.”

However, he declined to comment on reports that his force has stopped sharing intelligence on the Manchester attack with the US.