POLICE SEARCH TIP FOR BOMBER’S SUITCASE
OFFICERS BACK AT SITE AS PART OF ARENA ATTACK INVESTIGATION
POLICE have returned to search a landfill site as the hunt for key evidence in the Manchester Arena terror investigation continues.
Officers were at Viridor Waste Management, just off the M66 between Heywood and Bury, yesterday morning.
It is understood they were searching for a blue suitcase used by Salman Abedi in the run up to the bombing last May.
Around 15 specialist officers from the Tactical Aid Unit could be seen with sticks combing bushes surrounding the site, off Pilsworth Road.
The same site was searched in connection with the terror investigation last year.
During a search which lasted several months, officers trawled through 11,000 tonnes of rubbish.
Greater Manchester Police yesterday confirmed officers were carrying out a ‘follow up search’ in relation to the Arena attack.
It is understood officers could be there for several days.
Some officers could be seen searching beneath bushes with sticks along the perimeter and edges of the site, while others trawled through a fence onto the actual tip site.
One eyewitness told the M.E.N. a police vehicle was parked outside the site from around 8am. This was followed by a Tactical Aid Unit van and another Greater Manchester Police vehicle.
The local resident said this is the first time police have been seen returning to the tip since the searches first began last year.
At the time, police released CCTV images of Abedi wheeling a blue suitcase along a street in Manchester hours before he detonated his deadly device at the Arena on May 22, 2017.
CCTV footage captured him on Wilmslow Road and also in Manchester city centre with the luggage.
Back then, police said they were searching the Viridor Waste Management site for a suitcase used by Abedi.
Last year, GMP said they did not think the blue suitcase contained anything dangerous, however, members of the public were told not to touch it if they found it but to call 999. The suitcase was not used in the attack itself. In the days following the bomb, Detective Chief Superintendent Russ Jackson, of the North West Counter Terrorism Unit, said officers are particularly interested in Abedi’s whereabouts between May 18 and May 22, 2017. He said: “We know he visited the Wilmslow Road area of Manchester and was also seen in Manchester city centre with the blue suitcase. “Did you see Abedi with this suitcase between the 18 and 22
Officers are carrying out a search at a landfill site in relation to the ongoing investigation into the arena attack GMP spokesperson
May 2017? Where did you see him with it during that time?
“You may have seen him in the Wilmslow Road area or Manchester city centre with the suitcase, or know where the suitcase has been.
“If you have any details about the suitcase, we need you to get in touch and let us know.”
Speaking about the ongoing murder investigation last month, ACC Jackson said a team of round 100 investigators are working fulltime on the Arena case.
They have spent the past year interviewing witnesses, painstakingly working through thousands of hours of CCTV, considering forensic material and piecing together evidence.
During the course of the investigation, 23 people have been arrested and 30 addresses searched.
In addition, officers have seized 13,000 exhibits and taken more than 2,000 witness statements.
Around 16 terabytes of data are being examined and more than eight million lines of telephone communications data have been collected.
Police have been granted a warrant for the arrest of Salman Abedi’s younger brother Hashem Abedi and have applied to have him extradited back to the UK.
ACC Jackson added: “In the meantime, we will continue to gather evidence, searching for as much detail about what happened and evidence of anyone responsible whilst supporting the families, many of whom who are going through unimaginable pain.”
Speaking about yesterday’s search, a GMP spokesman said: “Officers are carrying out a followup search at a landfill site in Bury in relation to the ongoing investigation into the Arena attack.”
A Viridor spokesperson added: “Viridor is offering every assistance to Greater Manchester Police at the waste and recycling company’s landfill site in Pilsworth. Site operations are continuing.”