Ibrahim el-Naggar, CNN • Updated 21st May 2018
( CNN ) — Jihadist sympathizers share gruesome photos of the victims of the Manchester Arena bombing while other posters urge Syrians who have fled to seek refuge in England.
Meanwhile, in Baghdad, Ibrahim el-Naggar anxiously awaits the visit of his daughter who was on the way to London when she was killed in the attack.
Syrians took to the social media platform to share their personal accounts of the bombing and to implore politicians to help Syrians facing the same trauma.
Images of children being killed during last week’s attack at the Ariana Grande concert in Manchester lit up social media as photos emerged of children dying in a hotel balcony as their parents tried to escape war-torn Syria.
Now, in Baghdad, a journalist who witnessed the attack and is also Syrian describes the scenes of terror as panic swept through the city following the suicide bombing.
Ibrahim’s wife is there as well, she says, and her best friend’s toddler was also among the dead.
She says the situation became surreal as concertgoers started running in every direction.
Her best friend had children with her who were taken from her by the mob, she says.
She then called her 16-year-old daughter who was visiting her mother in London.
He was absolutely hysterical. He was screaming. He wanted to know if we had found him.
She left him in the UK.
On Tuesday night he was supposed to be with his friend and one of the girls at the hotel.
He was in contact with her and he told her and his friend he was in the hotel the minute the attack happened.
He wanted to go. But then he changed his mind and he could not make it.
He left his phone at home and his father’s phone, a little bit different, to give it to his friend.
So when she called him I had to talk to him on the phone, and he said what?
What happened?
And I could hear things, so I said, “Where is your daughter?”
And he said, “Don’t worry. The police say they found her after an hour, so I’m going to find her and take her to London.”
He went to see her, but she was not there.
We still do not know what happened. We don’t know the question of where she was in the hotel.