Iron Maiden have taken to social media to condemn last night’s Manchester terror attack, in which 22 people were killed and 59 injured at pop star Ariana Grande's concert, and to ensure fans that the final dates of their UK tour will go ahead.

Says Iron Maiden: “We are shocked by last night’s terrible events at the Manchester Arena. Our thoughts go out to everyone affected. We can advise fans that our last three UK shows in Cardiff and at London's O2 will proceed as planned. Of course any extra means to ensure fan safety are being examined with the relevant authorities.”

The final three dates on the UK leg of The Book Of Souls World Tour are as follows:

May
24 - Motorpoint Arena - Cardiff, UK
27 - O2 Arena - London, UK
28 - O2 Arena - London, UK

On June 4th, Iron Maiden return to North America for the next leg of The Book Of Souls World Tour. Speaking with Express & Star, bassist Steve Harris commented on the upcoming dates.

“We are really looking forward to returning to North America for a full tour,” says Harris. “We had always planned to go back there and to the UK as last year, due to the global nature of the tour and the period it took, we just didn’t have time to cover them properly and we do still like to get to fans in as many places as possible.

“We will, of course, be bringing the full production with us including all the Eddies and the Mayan-themed stage sets. There’s been a great reaction from everyone to this tour’s theme, people really seem to love it. We’re still deciding on the final set-list and we’ll work that out once we get into rehearsals.

“Most of our North American fans haven’t seen the show yet so as we want to give them the same Book Of Souls live experience that we took around the world, it’s unlikely we’ll change much. And, of course, we know our fans appreciate us playing a lot of the older songs too, so we will continue to do that!”

Read more at expressandstar.com.