Manchester attack: Bomber Salman Abedi had flown in from Libya

Salman Abedi had recently returned from Libya where he is believed to have received terror training at a jihadist camp.

Salman Abedi is thought to have trained with Libya jihadis. Picture: Supplied.

The suicide bomber who murdered 22 people at a pop concert in Manchester had recently returned from Libya, it emerged last night as Britain was put on alert for another imminent attack.

Thousands of troops are set to be deployed at high-risk locations, including the Houses of Parliament as part of Operation Temperer, after the threat level was raised from severe to critical for the first time in a decade.

Police and intelligence agencies are trying to establish whether Salman Abedi received terrorist training at a jihadist camp in the North African country where Isis and al-Qa’ida have allied to fight government forces. A school friend told The Times that Abedi, a Manchester-born university dropout of Libyan descent, returned in the past week. “He went to Libya three weeks ago and came back recently, like days ago,” the friend said.

Abedi, 22, was known to the security services, who will now face questions about what steps were taken to monitor his activity after his return to Manchester. On Monday evening he placed a suitcase on the ground in the foyer of the Manchester Arena moments before it detonated, according to CCTV footage recovered by detectives. The blast sent shrapnel flying into crowds as they left a concert by the US pop star Ariana Grande, killing an eight-year-old girl and other children and leaving 59 injured.

GALLERY: Manchester terror attack

Britain’s terror threat level has been raised for the first time since 2007, Theresa May said after chairing a second meeting of the Cobra emergency committee.

The prime minister said the latest intelligence assessments concluded: “It is a possibility we cannot ignore that there is a wider group of individuals linked to this attack.”

Mrs May said the move was proportionate and that she did not want the public to be unduly alarmed. “We stand defiant ... the terrorists will never win, and we will prevail,” she added.

SAS soldiers were sent to Manchester on Tuesday amid fears of further attacks, Whitehall sources confirmed. Counter-terrorism officers fear that a bombmaker could be on the loose after the first use of a viable improvised explosive device by jihadists in Britain since the July 7 bombings in 2005.

Security sources said their “number one priority” was working out who made the device. It was difficult to believe that Abedi could have carried out his attack using a “sophisticated” bomb without significant support, they believe.

The death toll from the blast outside the Manchester Arena, which struck shortly after 10.30pm as 21,000 people were leaving the concert, is expected to rise. Hospitals were last night treating 59 people, 12 of them under the age of 16, several of whom were gravely injured.

One of the first victims identified was Saffie Rose Roussos, eight, from Leyland in Lancashire. Georgina Callander, 18, an Ariana Grande “superfan”, was also among the dead.

Mrs May, who travelled to Manchester yesterday, said: “We struggle to comprehend the warped and twisted mind that sees a room packed with young children not as a scene to cherish, but an opportunity for carnage.” Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader, attended a vigil in the city last night.

Armed officers raided Abedi’s home in Fallowfield, in the south of the city, using a controlled explosion to enter the property. His brother, Ismael, 23, was arrested in the street in the Chorlton area and remains in custody.

Abedi was known to the security services as an associate of Raphael Hostey, 24, also from Manchester, who became a prolific recruiter for Isis after travelling to Syria. He was not among 350 jihadists known by intelligence agencies to have returned from the conflict. Isis claimed the attack had been carried out by one of its fighters and promised more carnage but investigators are sceptical that the group directed Abedi. They have also not ruled out the possibility of an al-Qaeda link.

Neighbours said Abedi had grown a beard and began to wear religious dress in recent months and was seen praying on the street. He had hung flags and banners from windows at his home.

Isis has been in retreat in Libya but retained a foothold in the south where, reports say, jihadists linked to al-Qaeda have helped it to regroup.

The general election campaign was suspended until further notice although some candidates were expected to resume canvassing today.

A man believed to have been armed with a knife was arrested last night close to a vigil for the Manchester victims in the centre of Birmingham.

Britain’s terror threat level was last at critical in June 2007 when police were pursuing two men who tried to bomb the Tiger Tiger nightclub in London. They attacked Glasgow airport days later when one died and one was captured. The alert level has been at critical twice: the first in 2006 after the exposure of a plot to blow up planes flying across the Atlantic and the second came the next year in response to a plot targeting a London nightclub.

The Times