were trying to establish whether he had acted alone or with help from others.
The man
suspected of carrying out Britain's deadliest bombing in nearly 12 years was
named as Salman Abedi, aged 22, but police declined to give further details
about him. (For a graphic showing where the blast hit: tmsnrt.rs/2rKy5Y1)
U.S.
security sources, citing British intelligence officials, said he was born in
Manchester in 1994 to parents of Libyan origin. He is believed to have traveled
by train from London before the attack, they said.
"Our
priority, along with the police counter-terrorism network and our security
partners, is to continue to establish whether he was acting alone or working as
part of a wider network," Manchester Police Chief Constable Ian Hopkins
said.
The attacker
set off his improvised bomb as crowds streamed out of the Manchester Arena
after a pop concert by Ariana Grande, a U.S. singer especially popular with
teenage girls.
"All
acts of terrorism are cowardly," Prime Minister Theresa May said outside
her Downing Street office after a meeting with security and intelligence
chiefs.
"But
this attack stands out for its appalling sickening cowardice, deliberately
targeting innocent, defenseless children and young people who should have been
enjoying one of the most memorable nights of their lives."
Britain has increased
its security threat level to "critical" from "severe"
following the attack, May said in a later televised statement, adding that
members of the armed forces would boost security at key sites and military
personnel might be deployed at public events such as concerts and sports
events.
Islamic
State, now being driven from territories in Syria and Iraq by Western-backed
armed forces, claimed responsibility for what it called a revenge attack
against "Crusaders", but there appeared to be contradictions in its
account of the operation.
FRANTIC
SEARCHES
Witnesses
related the horror of the blast, which unleashed a stampede just as the concert
ended at Europe's largest indoor arena, full to its capacity of 21,000.
"We ran
and people were screaming around us and pushing on the stairs to go outside and
people were falling down, girls were crying, and we saw these women being
treated by paramedics having open wounds on their legs ... it was just
chaos," said Sebastian Diaz, 19. "It was literally just a minute
after it ended, the lights came on and the bomb went off."
A video
posted on Twitter showed fans, many of them young, screaming and running from
the venue. Dozens of parents frantically searched for their children, posting
photos and pleading for information on social media.
Singer
Grande, 23, said on Twitter she was devastated: "broken. from the bottom
of my heart, i am so so sorry. i don't have words."
The attack
was the deadliest in the UK since four British Muslims killed 52 people in
suicide bombings on London's transport system in 2005. But it will have
reverberations far beyond British shores.
Attacks in
cities including Paris, Nice, Brussels, St Petersburg, Berlin and London have
shocked Europeans already anxious over security challenges from mass
immigration and pockets of domestic Islamist radicalism. Islamic State has
repeatedly called for attacks as retaliation for Western involvement in the
conflicts in Syria and Iraq.
While
claiming responsibility on its Telegram account, the group appeared to
contradict the police description of a suicide bomber. It suggested explosive
devices were placed "in the midst of the gatherings of the
Crusaders".
"What
comes next will be more severe on the worshippers of the cross," the
Telegram posting said.
It did not
name the bomber, as it usually does in attacks it has ordered, and appeared
also to contradict a posting on another Islamic State account, Amaq, which
spoke of "a group of attackers". That reference, however, was later
removed.
"DEPRAVED"
May said
security services were working to see if a wider group was involved in the
attack, which fell less than three weeks before a national election.
Campaigning was suspended as a mark of respect.
May spoke to
U.S. President Donald Trump, French President Emmanuel Macron and several other
foreign leaders on Tuesday about the attack, her spokesman said. She also
visited the police headquarters and a children's hospital in Manchester.
The White
House said Trump had agreed with May during their telephone conversation that
the attack was "particularly wanton and depraved".
Macron and
senior French ministers walked to the British embassy in Paris to sign the
condolence book.
German
Chancellor Angela Merkel said it "will only strengthen our resolve to...work
with our British friends against those who plan and carry out such inhumane
deeds".
The U.N.
Security Council condemned "the barbaric and cowardly terrorist
attack" and expressed solidarity with Britain in the fight against
terrorism.
Queen
Elizabeth held a minute's silence at a garden party at Buckingham Palace in
London.
Manchester
remained on high alert, with additional armed police drafted in. London Mayor
Sadiq Khan said more police had been ordered onto the streets of the British
capital.
Police
raided a property in the Manchester district of Fallowfield where they carried
out a controlled explosion.
On Tuesday
evening thousands of people attended a vigil in central Manchester in somber
but defiant mood.
"There's
hard times again in these streets of our city, but we won't take defeat and we
don't want your pity, because this is the place where we stand strong together
with a smile on our face, Mancunians forever," local poet Tony Walsh said
in a poem he read to the crowd that drew loud cheers and applause.
British
police do not routinely carry firearms, but London police said extra armed
officers would be deployed at this weekend's soccer cup final at Wembley and
rugby at Twickenham. Security would be reviewed also for smaller events.
In March, a
British-born convert to Islam plowed a car into pedestrians on London's
Westminster Bridge, killing four people before stabbing to death a police
officer who was on the grounds of parliament. The man was shot dead at the
scene.
In 2015,
Pakistani student Abid Naseer was convicted in a U.S. court of conspiring with
al Qaeda to blow up the Arndale shopping center in the center of Manchester in
April 2009.
REUTERS
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