Schoolgirl delivers speech on how she would confront Manchester Arena bomber

A 11-year-old from Lancashire moved her teachers to tears with a speech on how she would confront the Manchester Arena bomber if she could travel back in time.

Sara Hussein said she was inspired to write the speech by her friend who was in the front row of the Ariana Grande concert in May 2017. Children were among the 22 killed when bomber Salman Abedi targeted the concert.

In her speech titled If I Could Change the World, Sara said she would like to go back in time and confront Abedi before he carried out the deadly Manchester attack.

She wants him to explain how carrying out the attack "could possibly be for your religion?"

"I would explain what Islam teaches us," she continued.

"That he isn't doing it for me. And I would try my hardest to show him that there is no need to do this."

"Because for what reason was he doing it? To make people hate and fear Muslims? Because Islam is about peace, not terror," she added.

Sara's headteacher, Donna Simpson, told Sky News that she was "incredibly proud" of her student and said the piece had brought her to tears.

She said: "We were utterly overwhelmed with emotion. It struck a chord with so many of us as Manchester it really close to our town and many of us have visited the arena on different occasions."

Sara hopes her words will "change people's views and attitudes".

"I felt upset and couldn't believe that someone from the religion of Islam could do that," she said about the attack. "Islam means peace and almost all of our faith is about peace and to spread peace. You should try to make others happy. He painted Islam in a bad light."