British police make fresh arrest over Manchester bombing
POLICE HAVE DETAINED A NEW SUSPECT OVER LINKS WITH THE MANCHESTER SUICIDE BOMBING, BRINGING THE TOTAL NUMBER OF ATTACK-RELATED ARRESTS TO 16. THE LATEST ARREST WAS MADE IN THE SOUTHERN COASTAL TOWN OF SHOREHAM-BY-SEA
DW—A 23-year-old man was arrested in Shoreham-by-Sea, some 400 kilometres (250 miles) from Manchester,“on suspicion on offences contrary to the terrorism act,” Greater Manchester Police said on Twitter Monday morning.
Police also raided a building in a southern Manchester suburb and another in the city of Chester in connection with last week’s attack on an Ariana Grande concert by Salman Abedi, a 22-year-old Briton of Libyan descent.The bombing killed 22 people, including children.
British authorities believe Abedi was part of a network, with interior minister Amber Rudd saying Sunday there were “potentially” still members of the cell at large.
The Monday arrest has brought the total number of people arrested in connection with the Manchester bombing to 16. Two were released by police without charge, while 14 remain in custody.
Threat level down a notch
On Saturday, prime minister Theresa May said developments in the investigation prompted intelligence experts to lower the threat level in the country from “critical”—the highest available—to “severe,” claiming that a critical part of the network had been dismantled.
Still, security remains high at largescale public events,including the Great Manchester Run where some 40,000 runners took to the city streets.
Media reports say that people who knew Abedi had raised concerns about him and his views as far back as 2012.
“The intelligence services are still collecting information about him but I wouldn’t rush to conclusions, as you seem to be, that they have somehow missed something,” interior minister Rudd said.
When asked how many potential militants the government was concerned about, Rudd said Britain’s security services were tracking 500 different potential plots, involving 3,000 people as a “top list,” with a further 20,000 beneath that.