Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Net spreads wider in bombing probe
THE Manchester bombing inquiry has spread to the south coast of England with the arrest of a man in West Sussex.
The 23-year-old was held on suspicion of terror offences at an address in Shoreham-by-Sea in the early hours of today, Greater Manchester Police said.
As counter-terror officers swooped in the seaside town, searches were also launched 260 miles away at properties in Manchester and Cheshire (police activity pictured inset).
The bank holiday raids followed a flurry of police activity in Manchester over the weekend, with the arrest of a 25-year-old man in Old Trafford and a 19-year-old man in Gorton in connection with the attack.
The massive operation to dismantle suicide bomber Salman Abedi’s network is showing little sign of slowing.
Police have been working round-theclock since Abedi killed 22 people, seven of them children, and injured more than 100 in the worst terrorist atrocity since the July 7 bombings in 2005.
The race to round up a suspected network connected to the terrorist has seen a total of 16 arrests made in connection with the attack, although two people have since been released.
It has been reported that MI5 has launched two urgent inquiries into whether it missed the danger posed by Abedi, 22, amid allegations it was warned of his deadly aspirations.
The domestic security service is said to be investigating whether any glaring errors were made in the handling of intelligence concerning Abedi before he launched the attack last Monday night.
Spy chiefs are believed to have held an emergency review in the days after the atrocity, while a separate in-depth inquiry is being conducted to look at the decision-making surrounding his case before the massacre, it was reported.
A senior Whitehall source previously revealed the mass murderer was a “former subject of interest” to the security services whose risk “remained subject to review”.
Home secretary Amber Rudd said yesterday she would “not rush to conclusions” that agents “somehow missed something”.
In the wake of the Manchester attack it emerged that British counter-terror authorities were conducting 500 investigations involving 3,000 individuals.