Why do so many believe the Manchester Arena terror attack did't happen?

As two survivors of the Ariana Grande attack, which killed 22 people in 2017, sue a man for harassment, author ABIGAIL DEAN writes exclusively about the alarming rise in the conspiracy theorists who deny the shocking reality of terror attacks

THE murderer, ordinary enough, makes his first appearance on CCTV footage in Victoria Station. He wears glasses, a cap, white trainers and a black tracksuit. He carries a backpack that in hindsight is impossible to unsee. At the time, it must have appeared onerous, the kind of bag you'd take on a hike or joke about climbing Everest if a friend wore it.

After arriving at the Manchester Arena, the killer hides in the toilets, waiting for the moment his heinous crime will have its greatest impact. He is last seen in the foyer, surrounded by men, women, and children.

They are looking for friends or family, buzzing from the Ariana Grande performance they've just enjoyed.

At 10.31 pm, he detonates a 30kg nail bomb, killing 22 people, the youngest just eight years old, and wounding hundreds more.

Suddenly, there is no more talk of songs or outfits. There is only smoke and panic, ambulances and firearms a great, terrible schism between what the night had held and how it ended.

In a surreal moment, some crowd members flee clutching the giant pink balloons released from the rafters mere seconds before the explosion.

Almost seven years on, the terrible details of what happened to children, teenagers and adults at an Ariana Grande concert on May 22, 2017, remain stark. Suicide bomber Salman Abedi, who had returned to the UK from Libya four days before the attack, was the man pictured calm and composed on CCTV.

Though we will never be able to ask him why, it is clear he intended to kill and maim as many lives as possible on that night.

And yet, shockingly, there are some people who today do not believe the attack happened.

Not content to keep their thoughts to themselves, they have spread malicious rumours online. And, in the most extreme cases, they have targeted survivors and victims’ families.