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Manchester Arena terror attack

22 people have been killed and 59 have been injured in the blast at Manchester Arena. Children are among the dead. The attack was carried out by a lone male suicide bomber who detonated an improvised explosive device. He died at the arena.

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Simon Cowell praises Manchester Arena survivor's courage in Britain's Got Talent auditition

Hollie Booth who survived the Arena attack, shielded by her aunt Credit: Family picture

Britain's Got Talent judge Simon Cowell has said a survivor of the Manchester Arena attack showed that "cowards can't win" when she auditioned for the talent programme.

Hollie Booth, who's 13, returned to Manchester to dance to a medley of Ariana Grande hits with friends who borrowed wheelchairs in a show of support.

Hollie only survived the attack at the Arena after her aunt Kelly Brewster shielded her and Hollie's mother, when the blast ripped through the foyer of the arena on May 22 last year, leaving 22 victims dead.

32 year old Kelly Brewster, from Sheffield died in the attack as she saved her sister and niece.

Kelly Brewster died in the Manchester Arena attack Credit: @Shyamus18

"God only knows how she dealt with that at her age, the effect it must still have. The fact that she got together with a bunch of friends and did something, more than just an act, it was a statement.

"It showed that the cowards can't win and that she overcame it.

" It was one of those moments I will never, ever forget."

– Judge Simon Cowell

"I would say that, for me that audition was bigger than the show, that's the only way to describe the magnitude of what she's been through and the moment of her performing on the show. It felt bigger than us."

– Fellow Judge Alesha Dixon

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