Bee pictures appearing in Manchester windows as city marks anniversary of arena terror attack in lockdown

'It's a way of saying we haven't forgotten. We remember those who never came home that night. They are still loved'

Four-year-old Kiera Ogden (Leeanne Ogden)

Pictures of bees have been appearing in windows across Greater Manchester as the city marks the third anniversary of the arena bombing.

With no physical commemorations taking place on Friday due to the coronavirus lockdown, households and businesses are displaying the images for passers-by to see.

The worker bee is a symbol of Manchester and features on the city’s coat of arms. Many of the home-made pictures sit alongside rainbows, which have appeared in windows across the country as a thank you to NHS staff working through the Covid-19 crisis.

“It’s just a way of saying we haven’t forgotten,” Leeanne Ogden, a mother-of-three who first posted the idea on social media earlier this month, told The Independent. “We remember those who never came home that night, they're still loved.”

Twenty-two people died and more than 1,000 others were injured when a terrorist detonated a suicide bomb during an Ariana Grande gig at the city’s arena in 2017. Many of them were children and teenagers.

“It’s important children understand what happened,” says Leeanne, 41, who created 22 bees with four-year-old daughter Kiera at their home in Oldham. “This feels like an appropriate way of talking about this sad and awful thing but of showing them that love beats darkness.”

The new displays have been going up just days after Manchester City Council unveiled further details for a memorial remembering those who died in the attack.

A white stone halo – called Glade of Light – will sit in a garden space near the cathedral and bear the names of all 22 victims in bronze. It will hold personalised memory capsules for each one.

Describing the memorial as a “tranquil space for contemplation”, Sir Richard Leese, leader of the council, said: “Manchester will never forget the terrible events of 22 May 2017. Those who were killed, those who lost loved ones and all those whose lives changed forever that night are forever in our thoughts.”