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‘This Is Our City': Random Acts of Kindness Followed UK Concert Bombing

The Muslim co-owner of a local taxi firm said he was particularly determined to help out because of the Islamophobic online messages that often surface after terrorist attacks

Sam Arshad, who co-owns a taxi firm in Manchester, England, happened to be driving past the city's biggest arena on his way home Monday night when he heard screams, NBC News reported.

It was the suicide bombing that left at least 22 people dead outside an Ariana Grande concert. Arshad, who is 35 and Muslim, asked his drivers not to charge families, teenagers and children hoping to get home through the chaos to be reunited with their loved ones.

He said he "spoke to the drivers and pleaded with them that, if we could do anything, this was our time to help the people of Manchester. This is our city."

Arshad was particularly determined to help out because of the Islamophobic online messages that often surface after terrorist attacks, he said. But he wasn't the only one to help out — many Mancunians, as residents are called, offered up their homes to stranded concertgoers via the Twitter hashtag #roomsformanchester.

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