Manchester One Love concert: Thousands posing as victims of terror attack to get free tickets

'It's a charity event, how can you be so disgusting' writes one Twitter user

Ariana Grande performs onstage during Power 96 1's Jingle Ball at Philips Arena ((Getty Images) )

Thousands of people have pretended that they were at the Ariana Grande show which took place before the Manchester bombing, in a bid to get free tickets for a benefit concert for the victims.

Ticketmaster said over 25,000 people have claimed for 14,200 tickets - meaning more than 10,000 people have falsely applied for the One Love show at the Old Trafford cricket ground.

"We're working hard to get tickets direct to fans," the company said. "We are cancelling tickets of those who are reselling wherever possible."

Fans who attended the first show now fear they may miss out.

John, 52, from Levenshulme, had hoped to attend the second concert with his 17-year-old daughter Ava.

The pair had a lucky escape when they were directed to another exit on the night that suicide bomber Salman Abedi blew himself up among the crowds leaving the gig, killing 23 and injuring dozens more.

Mr Alesbury told the Manchester Evening News that he could tell his daughter was "heartbroken" about not getting a ticket.

"Music is her life," he said. "She looks after her disabled mum so it is her only escape. It’s been a tough week. She broke down when she got home on Monday. And this new concert being announced had really cheered her up."

He added: "She loves music and she loves Manchester so it would have been great for her. But now she’s devastated at the thought of not going.”

Tickets went on sale on Thursday at 10am. The had sold out 11 minutes later.

For the general public, the price of the tribute show is £40, but some have made it to resale websites for £400.

A Ticketmaster spokesperson told The Independent: "Overnight Ticketmaster processed a further 4,000 tickets for genuine fans, which is a total of 12,000 now processed out of the 14,200 we have set aside for genuine fans who were at the show on 22 May, to go to One Love Manchester this Sunday.

"We urge all customers to check their inboxes, especially junk and spam folders, and claim their tickets by 2pm.

"Registration has now closed, but we would like to reassure customers that we are still working through hundreds of applications and if they can verify that they were at the original show, they will get their tickets.

"There is a small number of instances where customers have not received their confirmation, however our customer service team continues to work extremely hard to contact customers as soon as possible and we ask for patience whilst we work through this.

"We will not stop until we have as many genuine fans at the show as possible."

Over £2 million has been raised to support families of those injured and killed in the Manchester Arena attack, and net proceeds of the concert will go to British Red Cross's We Love Manchester emergency fund.