Salman Abedi is shown wearing the knapsack police believe carried the bomb that was packed with nuts and bolts to cause maximum carnage.
Manchester police have released two photographs of Salman Abedi taken by CCTV cameras on the night he blew himself up outside the Manchester Arena.
The images show Mr. Abedi wearing the knapsack police believe carried the bomb that was packed with nuts and bolts to cause maximum carnage. Police believe he held a detonator in one hand to trigger the bomb. Twenty-two people in the bombing were killed and more than 100 were injured.
The release of the photos came as police said they have made good progress in tracking Mr. Abedi's whereabouts just before the attack, which came around 10:30 p.m. last Monday at the end of a concert by singer Ariana Grande. In a statement released Saturday, police said they have been concentrating on an apartment in the city centre where they believe Mr. Abedi assembled the bomb before walking to the arena, which is only a short distance away. Mr. Abedi travelled to Libya in the weeks before the attack to visit his parents and younger brother. He returned to Manchester on May 18 and likely spent time at the apartment assembling the explosive.
So far, police have arrested 13 people in Manchester and raided 14 locations across the city in an effort to track down those who may have helped Mr. Abedi. Investigators believe he did not act alone and that he was radicalized during several trips to Libya over the years.
"We have around 1,000 people involved in the investigation alone," Chief Constable Ian Hopkins said in a statement. "In addition, there are hundreds of officers and staff from Greater Manchester Police and other forces involved in the security around Greater Manchester. In the past five days, we have gathered significant information about Abedi, his associates, his finances, the places he had been, how the device was built and the wider conspiracy. As a result of the arrests and searches which have taken place, we now have many further lines of enquiry. We already have more than 1,500 actions we are pursuing."
Mr. Abedi, 22, was born in Manchester and grew up in the city. His parents fled Libya in the early 1990s but returned to that country six years ago to join the fight against Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi. Mr. Abedi's father and younger brother have been arrested by local militia in Tripoli who said they both knew about the attack. Mr. Abedi's sister has also told reporters that her brother acted out of revenge for the killing of Muslims in Syria.
In the wake of Monday's attack, British Prime Minister Theresa May raised the security threat level across the country to critical, the highest designation. She also called for up to 3,800 soldiers to patrol city landmarks. On Saturday, Ms. May reduced the level back to severe and said soldiers would be withdrawn Monday night after the country's long holiday weekend.
Paul Waldie