Large part of Manchester attack network detained, police say

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Top counter-terrorism officer says police have made significant arrests and finds, and tells public to continue with bank holiday plans

Detectives investigating the Manchester Arena bombing say they have “got hold of a large part of the network” and made “immense” progress in arresting people suspected of assisting Salman Abedi, who killed 22 concertgoers on Monday night.

Britain’s top counter-terrorism officer, Mark Rowley, said on Friday that while there were still important lines of inquiry to pursue and further arrests were likely, the public should “go out as you planned and enjoy yourselves” over the bank holiday weekend.

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He said detectives had made “very significant arrests and some significant finds”.

“Clearly, we haven’t covered all the territory we want to but we have covered a large part of it so our confidence has been increasing in recent days,” he said. “But there’s still more to do.”

The Guardian understands there is no positive evidence that a device exists in the possession of a terrorist about to execute another attack, although investigators say this can not be ruled out.

The threat level is set to remain at critical throughout the weekend at least, meaning an attack is still considered imminent.

Overnight on Friday, police arrested another two men, taking to the total number of suspects to 11. Officers used a controlled explosion to access an address in Cheetham Hill, where the men were arrested.

Police now appear convinced Abedi had help arming himself and that accomplices will face trial.

Rowley said detectives were striving to understand “everything we can about the dead terrorist, his associates, the whole network and how they acquired and built the bomb that exploded on Monday night”.

Investigators believe aspects of the way the bomb was built point towards the maker having made improvised explosive devices before. It showed considerable power and the nuts and bolts had been packed to maximise their murderous effect.

They also believe the attack involved a significant change in terrorist planning, spotting a weak point when people were leaving an event. “It is a new style of attack, striking when the security focus is on helping the crowd getting out safely,” a source said.

Since the attack police have reviewed security at more than 1,300 events across the country. Extra armed police will patrol the FA Cup final at Wembley, where armoured vehicles will be deployed, and the rugby Premiership final at Twickenham, while 50% more firearms officers have been deployed on the streets – including some who were seen patrolling on Scarborough beach on Friday.

Greater Manchester police made two arrests and raided three more properties earlier on Friday.

The investigation into whether a network supported Abedi’s suicide attack has so far involved raids at 12 addresses in the UK, including Manchester, Wigan, Nuneaton and St Helens. Libyan authorities have also arrested Abedi’s father, Ramadan, and younger brother Hashem, 20.

Two of Abedi’s cousins are believed to be among those arrested on Wednesday. Abderahman and Abdallah Forjani ran the Fade Away barbershop in Moss Side that was raided on Friday morning. Also raided were the San Lorenzo pizza takeaway in St Helens, formerly run by a man who is said to have rented a north Manchester flat to Abedi earlier this year; and a terraced house in Moss Side where a 30-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of terrorism offences.

Detectives said they had taken accounts from hundreds of witnesses and were reviewing hours of CCTV footage, financial and communication records of suspects, and are making international inquiries. They were also focused on “understanding Abedi’s life” which saw him travelling back and forth between Libya and Manchester after his father returned to his home country in 2011.

The security minister Ben Wallace said earlier on Friday: “We are trying to roll up a network. This is not a lone individual.” He described the investigation as “still very live, it is still very hot”.

It also emerged that the security service MI has opened files and examined 23,000 people for allegedly supporting violent jihad. A pool of 20,000 have been “subjects of interest “ but not deemed worth investigating further as posing a danger of involvement in attacks. The figures were released to make the point that MI5 has to prioritise who it can investigate at any one time amid criticism that it failed to spot the danger posed by Abedi despite information from Muslims his behaviour was concerning.

In the pool of 20,000 was the Manchester attacker and also Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale , who murdered Lee Rigby in 2013. MI5 has resources to investigate 3,000 suspects, and is currently running 500 investigations.

The Greater Manchester police chief constable, Ian Hopkins, said “there has been enormous progress with the investigation, but still an awful lot of work to do”.

He also said there had been an increase in reports of hate crime, from 28 on Monday, the normal average, to 56 on Wednesday.

NHS England said 66 of the 116 people injured in the attack were still being treated across eight hospitals, 23 of them in critical care.

Manchester attack: A week of arrests and raids

Speaking to the Guardian, the owner of a hardware shop on Princess Road, Byron Gibbs, said he had seen Salman Abedi at the Fade Away barbershop that was raided. “I recognised him in the photos,” he said. “He spends time with the people. I’ve seen him walk past the shop window lots of times. He was heading towards the barber’s next door.

“I was shocked to see his face on television. It’s been a long time since I saw him last.”

The shopkeeper, 79, said no one had been in the barbershop since at least Tuesday and it had now closed.

Gibbs described the owners as Muslim men of Middle Eastern appearance.

There was a police cordon in place around four properties at the site on Friday morning: a hardware store, a pharmacy and a cafe, as well as the barber’s.

Mohamed Elhudarey said that until two weeks ago he had run the raided San Lorenzo takeaway in Corporation Street, St Helens, with his friend Aimen Elwafi. Elhudarey claimed that Elwafi, 38, rented a flat in Blackley to Abedi.

Originally from Libya, Elhudarey said Elwafi handed himself in to police to help with inquiries on Wednesday night when he saw Abedi’s photograph on TV. “He made the connection straight away … He was shocked and panicked when he saw the news.” Greater Manchester police said on Friday that a 38-year-old man was arrested in Blackley on Thursday.

Elhudarey says his friend thought there was something odd going on in the flat and suspected Abedi may have been smoking drugs, but it never occurred to him that he could be making a bomb. He said Abedi left the flat in a hurry after about six weeks, around March, telling Elwafi he needed to fly to Libya and leaving behind many of his belongings.

Elhudarey had been looking after his friend’s seven-year-old son since he went into custody and had sought advice from a lawyer on his behalf, he said.

The home secretary, Amber Rudd, chaired another meeting of the government’s Cobra emergency committee on Friday morning. She said the UK threat level would remain at critical, but added: “We must not let this terrible terrorist incident impact on our lives. Let’s carry on this weekend, this bank holiday weekend, with our families and friends.”

As general election campaigning resumed on Friday, the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, said he would put more police on the streets and give extra resources to security services if needed. He also pledged a foreign policy that “reduces rather than increases the threat to this country”.

Lord Carlile, the former independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that it was a “grave mistake” by the coalition government to remove control orders. In 2011, the then home secretary, Theresa May, announced control orders would be replaced by less restrictive terrorism prevention and investigation measures (Tpims).

Source: theguardian