In the search for some humanity amid this tragic situation, reports of Ariana Grande apparently having reached out to the families of victims of the Manchester Arena attack have been seized upon by grieving fans.

A Twitter account devoted to the singer, Ariana Updates!, tweeted: "News on Ariana: Ariana has reached out to the families who's loves ones died last night....she is gonna pay for the funerals!'" (sic).

The post has been retweeted 32,000 times and favourited 72,000 times at the time of writing, and is now being widely reported.

We've been trying to get hold of a representative for Grande to clarify whether Ariana did indeed reach out to the families and will update this story as and when they respond.

Manchester 'explosions': Video shows screaming crowd fleeing Ariana Grande concert

A suicide bomber killed 22 people and left 119 injured at Grande's concert on Monday night. The rest of her world tour has been either postponed or cancelled.

"Broken," the singer tweeted after the concert. "From the bottom of my heart, I am so so sorry. I don't have words."

Out of respect for the victims, other acts including Blondie and Take That cancelled their planned UK concerts this week.

The UK terror threat has been raised to critical in the wake of the Manchester suicide bombing attack amid fears attacker Salman Abedi did not act alone.