ROME—The Manchester suicide bombing that killed 22 people and injured 64 at an Ariana Grande concert Tuesday evening has provoked an outpouring of emotion from Italian journalists and people.

 Mario Calabresi, writing for La Repubblica, highlighted that whilst terror attacks across Europe are beginning to be normalised, it was the nature of the incident in Manchester, which “leaves us without words.”

 “Now they have struck a spectacle of children and teenagers. They have infiltrated the most precious and dear thing we have, the space for family intimacy,” he wrote.

 “The suicide bomber killed at least 22 people but also the act of generosity and courage of a parent, an older brother, or an aunt who had gifted this rites of passage.”

 Similarly, Aldo Cazzullo drew attention to the harrowing contrast between the childlike images of toys and balloons next to the horrible cruelty of the terrorist attack. Writing in the Corriere della Sera, Cazzullo beleives that the attack was carried out in such a fashion that it mirrored the atrocities committed in Syria, which Islamist terrorists attribute to the West.

 He called for Europe to unite against this terror by continuing to live their daily lives as normal. “We must be vigilant, but we must also live. Also for the children of Manchester,” wrote Cazzullo.

 Schools across Italy observed a minute’s silence as a mark of respect to the victims who died in the Manchester attack, many of whom were children. The minute silence took place at 12:00 as requested by the Italian Minister of Education, Valeria Fedelli.

 Flags outside Italian government buildings, including the Union Jack, were flown at half-mast as a sign of participation in the pain and fight caused by the Manchester bombing.

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