Prince William gives personal tribute to bombing victims

LONDON (AP) — Prince William spoke of his own grief Tuesday as he gave a personal tribute to the families of 22 people who were killed when a suicide bomber targeted an Ariana Grande concert at Manchester Arena five years ago.

William and his wife. Kate, were attending the official opening of a public memorial in the city of Manchester, which comes ahead of the fifth anniversary of the terror attack on May 22, 2017.

The prince told families of those who died he knew that “the pain and the trauma felt by many has not gone away.”

“As someone who lives with his own grief, I also know that what often matters most to the bereaved is that those we have lost are not forgotten," William said. “There is comfort in remembering. In acknowledging that, while taken horribly soon, they lived."

William was a teenager when his mother, Princess Diana, died in 1997 in a Paris car crash.

The memorial, close to Manchester Cathedral, bears the names of those killed when Salman Abedi exploded a bomb in the foyer of Manchester Arena as young people and their parents were leaving a Grande concert.

Hundreds of people were injured in the attack. The 22 dead included six children, the youngest 8 years old.

The bomber’s younger brother, Hashem Abedi, was jailed for life in March 2020 for his part in plotting the attack.