HOLYROOD stood in silence yesterday, as MSPs, staff, journalists and visitors to the Scottish Parliament paid tribute to those killed in the terrorist attack in Manchester.

Campaigning in the General Election was suspended as the world tried to make sense of an atrocity that left at least 22 people dead and 59 injured. All UK political parties pushed back events organised for yesterday, with the SNP delaying the launch of their manifesto.

STV postponed their election debate between Scotland’s party leaders due to be broadcast tonight.

Addressing MSPs, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said the best response to the attack would be to “stand firm together”. She said: “We know that terrorists and extremists seek to divide us and destroy our way of life.

“As human beings we cannot com-prehend the twisted motivations that lead people to carry out such atrocities, particularly when they target children and young people in such a callous way.

“Our best response, now and always, is to stand firm together, with determ-ination and solidarity, to make clear to those who seek to undermine our values, target our children, and destroy our way life, that they will not succeed. Not now, and not ever.”

Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson echoed the First Minister’s sentiments, telling MSPs: “We must repeat that we will not be beaten by the twisted ideology of terrorism. We must repeat that we will not ourselves descend into hatred or rage. We will repeat and repeat and repeat that we stand tall. We stand together. We respond to every act of terror that strikes our nation by shouting from the rooftops that our values, our freedoms cannot and will not be diminished. “ Manchester, Davidson added, would “be added to the grim roll call of those cities across Europe to have been affected by this terrorism”.

“And like those other cities, it will first cry, then grieve, and then continue with spirit unbroken – showing that terrorism will never ever win,” she said.

Scottish Labour’s Kezia Dugdale condemned the man who had targeted a pop concert attended mostly by young girls, and who intruded in the joy and innocence of childhood with the bloody realities of adulthood.

“Every one of us has been there – been one of them,” Dugdale said of the concertgoers. “Enthralled by the sound and vision of a pop star at their peak. Desperate to see, in the flesh, the person whose image we’ve plastered on our bedroom walls. Being at a gig is a moment of sheer joy.

“Last night that joy was destroyed in a despicable act of cowardice. All that excitement, that innocent elation, turned to fear, to shock, and to horror.”

Those children, Dugdale added, would now “know the phrase ‘suicide bomber’ and the appalling reality of what that means”.

She went on: “A story which they might have watched on Newsround, couched in age-appropriate language to soften the roughest of edges, has brutally intruded into their young lives. For us, as adults, hearing the news of terrorist atrocities – be they bombs, or bullets, or cars mowing people down in the street – is all too sadly now commonplace.

“We tend to cover our children’s ears and eyes to protect them from the knowledge. And we hold them closer, all too aware of the fragility of their precious lives. But for those children and young people who witnessed last night’s abominable act, there is no softening the blow, no making it better, no suggesting these things don’t happen here, or to us, or to people we know.”

The only way to counter such an act was to “respond well”, Dugdale said, adding: “We can teach our children that the only way to counter such barbarity is not with hate and with fear, but with compassion, tolerance, kindness and love.”

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie said: “When we confront such heartbreaking news, we have to be clear in our answer to the question, ‘what did you do?’,” he said. “Ordinary people in Manchester throwing open their homes to give shelter and queues to donate blood. Let it be the case that we said we will live for hope, joy and fellowship.”

Scottish Greens co-convener Patrick Harvie offered his “deepest sympathies” to those affected by “this vicious attack”.

He spoke out against the “grotesque motivations behind such an act” but stressed the need to “always keep in mind the need to preserve our commitment to being a free and open society”.

On Twitter, Ukip’s David Coburn called the attack “heartbreaking”. He said: “I am sure there will be victims from every background in #Manchester attack. We are not afraid and we will not be broken.”