Mr Buckley calls Dubbo home now but his family and friends live just minutes away from Manchester Arena, the scene of an horrific explosion that killed 19 people and injured more than 50 others in an alleged terror attack.

“I saw it on the news then checked Facebook, and saw all of my friends talking about what was going on,” he said.

“I talked to my mum by text, and my brother, and they were watching the news and hearing all the sirens going past. None of my family was at the concert but I’m sure I know people who were there.

“It’s really sad, I’ve been watching the news all morning and it’s really strange to see these places you know so well on the news.”

The blast, which occurred as people were leaving an Ariana Grande concert, has been described as an “appalling terrorist attack” by British Prime Minister Theresa May.

Mr Buckley, the captain of RSL-Colts’ Whitney Cup cricket team, said he expected the city would struggle to come to terms with what had happened.

“Manchester is a big city but not as big as you’d think. It’s a real community and for something like this to happen is just horrible,” he said.

“Being a concert like that, there were a lot of children and younger people there so unfortunately they will probably be among the victims. That will hit the city hard.

While the incident came without warning, Mr Buckley said other attacks in England and around the world had some Manchester residents nervous they would become a target for terrorists.

“Because Manchester has Old Trafford and the cricket ground there has always been this opinion that it was only a matter of time,” he said.

“When you have 80,000 at Old Trafford, it makes it a big target. Now that an attack has happened, it’s really going to affect the day-to-day lives of people in the city. People are going to be in fear for a while.”

The explosion occurred at 10.30pm in England (7.30am AEST) so Mr Buckley said most of his friends had since tried to go to bed but he said he was hoping to talk more to them in the coming days.