Police have arrested a man in the Moss Side area of Manchester in connection with Monday’s attack at the city’s Arena venue that killed 22 people.
He is one of eight men now in custody as part of the investigation, Greater Manchester Police have said. Police believe Manchester-born suicide bomber Salman Abedi, 22 from a family of Libyan origin, acted as part of a network.
In total, 10 people have been arrested in the UK but two were later released.
The 22nd victim of the attack has been named as 15-year-old Megan Hurley, from Halewood in Merseyside.
The UK terror threat level remains “critical” – meaning another attack could be imminent.
On Friday, police said they had searched an address in St Helens, Merseyside, in connection with the attack. Residents who were moved from their homes in Wigan on Thursday night, while armed police and a bomb disposal unit searched a house, have been allowed to return.
In the Libyan capital Tripoli, Abedi’s younger brother Hashem, 20, and their father, Ramadan, were held by special forces linked to the interior ministry. A Libyan official has said Abedi’s brother knew of his aim to carry out an attack, but did not know its timing or location. Abedi was known to the security services, but his risk to the public remained “subject to review”.
Security Minister Ben Wallace said there were 12,000 people in that category, those who had formerly been come to the attention of the security services.
Meanwhile, the UK has resumed sharing information with the US after assurances were received by counter-terrorism officers in the UK. A diplomatic tiff broke out after the New York Times published leaked photos on Wednesday appearing to show debris from the crime scene, including bloodstained fragments from the bomb.
US president Donald Trump called the leaks “deeply troubling”.
General election campaigning, which was suspended in the wake of the Manchester attack, will resume on Friday, with Labour set to draw links between wars abroad and terrorism “at home”.
Leader Jeremy Corbyn will say that under a Labour government, UK foreign policy would change to one that “reduces rather than increases the threat” to the country.
Prime Minister Theresa May will be attending a G7 Summit meeting in Sicily on Friday. In a speech, she will urge world leaders to do more to combat online extremism.
In other developments:
Security minister Ben Wallace has said a “protective shield” is in place for events over the bank holiday weekend, adding there is “no specific” threat against an event
NHS England is warning health organisations to “ensure care is in place should it be needed” in the run-up to the Bank holiday weekend
Armed officers are to patrol trains nationwide for the first time
Former independent terrorism reviewer, Lord Carlile, has said it was a “grave mistake” for the government to “dilute” control orders and said T-Pims – the measures which replaced control orders – should be used more
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is due to meet Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson on Friday on his first official visit to the UK to show UK-US solidarity
UKIP’s Suzanne Evans said Theresa May had to take “some responsibility” for the Manchester bombing
Who Are The Victims?
Of the 22 victims killed at Manchester Arena, 21 have been named. The youngest known victim so far is eight-year-old Saffie Roussos from Lancashire, who was described as “simply a beautiful little girl” by her head teacher. The oldest victim was Jane Tweddle-Taylor, 51 and from Blackpool, who had gone to the arena with a friend to pick up her friend’s daughter. An off-duty Cheshire police officer Elaine McIver was also among the dead.
In a statement, her family said: “Despite what has happened to her, she would want us all to carry on regardless and not be frightened by fear tactics.”
On Thursday evening, well-wishers in a convoy of bikes, scooters and cars adorned with pink ribbons and balloons wound their way from Bury to Manchester to pay tribute to 15-year-old Bury victim, Olivia Campbell. Of the 116 injured, 75 remain in hospital. Of those, 23 are in critical care – five of them children.
More details have begun to emerge about 22-year-old suicide bomber Abedi. His sister, Jomana, has said she believed her brother may have been reacting to US-led strikes in the Middle East. “He saw the explosives America drops on children in Syria, and he wanted revenge. “Whether he got that is between him and God,” she reportedly told the Wall Street Journal.
It is also being reported that a Libyan government spokesman said 15 minutes before he blew himself up, Abedi called his mother and brother. His movements in the run-up to the attack have also come into focus, with reports that he left the UK for a while, but returned in the days before the bombing.
During a trip back from Libya, where his parents now live, he briefly stopped at Düsseldorf Airport, having reportedly been in Prague, but remained in the airport’s transit zone.
Abedi was in Manchester earlier this year, when he told people of the value of dying for a cause and made hardline statements about suicide operations and the conflict in Libya. At the age of 16 and during his school holidays, Abedi is believed to have fought with his father in Libya against the Gaddafi regime.
Greater Manchester Police would not comment on these claims.
In recent days, former classmates of Abedi have variously described him as jokey, gullible and short-tempered. Another, who did not want to be named, told World At One Abedi did not “come across as an intelligent person”.
Asked whether he thought Abedi might have been manipulated by more intelligent people, he replied: “A hundred percent. “I can’t imagine the idea that he would be able to go through with such a complicated procedure. He must have had help.” “I wasn’t shocked,” the classmate added. “He fits the profile for a suicide bomber.”