Ariana Grande says she will return to Manchester for benefit gig

The star says in a statement: "We will not quit or operate in fear. We won't let this divide us. We won't let hate win."

10:37, UK,Saturday 27 May 2017

Ariana Grande says she will return to Manchester to hold a benefit gig for victims of the suicide bombing at her concert.

Twenty-two people were killed when a suicide bomber detonated his explosives in a crowd leaving her show at the Manchester Arena on Monday.

"I'll be returning to the incredibly brave city of Manchester to spend time with my fans and to have a benefit concert in honor of and to raise funds for the victims and their families," the star said in a statement on Twitter.

"There is nothing I or anyone can do to take away the pain you are feeling or make this better.

"However, I extend my hand and heart and everything I possibly can give to you and yours, should you want or need my help in any way.

"The only thing we can do now is choose how we let this affect us and how we live our lives from here on out."

:: The victims of the Manchester terror attack

The star said the attack had weighed heavily on her mind: "I have been thinking of my fans, and of you all, non stop over the past week.

"The compassion, kindness, love strength and oneness that you've shown one another this past week is the exact opposite of the heinous intentions it must take to pull off something as evil as what happened Monday.

"YOU are the opposite."

:: Manchester bombing paramedic: Real heroes still in hospital

On Monday, she had tweeted: "broken. from the bottom of my heart, i am so so sorry. i don't have words."

But in her statement, she strikes a note of defiance, saying: "We will not quit or operate in fear.

"We won't let this divide us. We won't let hate win."

After the bombing, Grande suspended her Dangerous Woman world tour, cancelling several European shows.

The tour restarts on 7 June in Paris.

In her Twitter statement, which has been retweeted more than 300,000 times, Grande added: "This show, more than anything else, was intended to be a safe space for my fans.

"A place for them to escape, to celebrate, to heal, to feel safe and to be themselves."

She said the world came together at her concerts: "When you look into the audience at my shows, you see a beautiful, diverse, pure, happy crowd.

"Thousands of people, incredibly different, all there for the same reason, music.

"Music is something that everyone on Earth can share. Music is meant to heal us, to bring us together, to make us happy. So that is what it will continue to do for us."

The star also tweeted a link to the British Red Cross appeal for the families of those killed and injured.

She said "the ones we lost, their loved ones, my fans and all affected by this tragedy would be "on my mind and in my heart everyday".

She "will think of them with everything I do for the rest of my life".