Seen on CCTV The bomber
CHILLING CCTV IMAGES REVEAL HOW BOMBER LOOKED LIKE ANY OTHER CONCERT-GOER ON NIGHT OF DEADLY ATTACK
Minutes before he brought bloodshed to a concert, mass killer Salman Abedi is captured on camera
He would smoke weed and harass girls at college. He just had no respect for any women
Manchester terrorist Abedi wore casual clothes to blend in at arena. And then unleashed hell
Dressed in casual clothes and wearing a skip cap, terrorist Salman Abedi looks like a man without a care in the world moments before killing 22 people with a suicide bomb in Manchester.
The chilling CCTV images were taken just before Abedi launched his deadly attack.
Looking like any concert- goer, the bomber could not appear more different than the common perception of a radical jihadist.
Abedi sports a grey baseball cap and designer glasses, his hair trimmed in a short-back-and-sides.
There is no beard traditional ly associated with Islamist extremists – although the ki l ler does have a little facial hair including a small moustache.
Abedi, 22, wears boot-style trainers with the laces loosely done, dark jeans with turn- ups and a black Hollister puffer bodywarmer over a black long-sleeved top.
It’s not clear whether the terrorist carried his bomb under his jacket or on a rucksack slung on his back.
The exact location of the photos was not released.
The number of victims still in hospital last night stood at 63. Of those, 20 are in critical care.
The injured are being treated at hospitals across Greater Manchester.
They include Laura McIntyre, from the Hebridean island of Barra, whose best friend Eilidh MacLeod was one of those killed.
Laura, 15, remains in a critical condition after suffering serious burns in the blast at the Manchester Arena.
Further arrests were made yesterday, taking to 11 the number detained by security services seeking to dismantle the network of associates linked to Abedi.
The images from the night he carried out his atrocity are in contrast to the picture painted by former friends of a traditionally dressed, drugusing college dropout.
The bomber would turn up to his IT classes in full Islamic dress and spark furious rows with female tutors, friends revealed.
A fellow student in Abedi ’s 2012-13 year group at Manchester College said: “He had ser ious i ssues w ith women, especially the female staff.
“He had a dread ful
attitude and would argue with them about anything. “He would hang around with other lads who would smoke weed and harass the girls. They’d say really inappropriate things – he just had no respect for women.” It is believed Abedi started to become radicalised during trips to Tripoli, Libya, which began in 2011. Abedi dropped out of Salford University during his second year of a business and management degree. A Manchester College spokesman said : “We can confirm Salman Abedi studied with us and left in 2013.” Neighbours said he chanted prayers in the street, while one filmed him putting out a wheelie bin in F allow field, Manchester, wearing a brown djellaba with the hood pulled up over his head. Former neighbour Asif Khal said his street was terrorised by louts including Abedi.
Asif, 56, said: “None of them had jobs. They would hang around and ride on mopeds, smoking cannabis all the time. It was hell for people who lived here.”
Abedi is believed to have spent his last hours at a flat in Granby Row in central Manchester.
Neighbours repor ted strange chemical smells coming from his flat.
Mohammed El-Hudarey said: “We didn’t even think one per cent he was a terrorist or bomb-maker.
“We thought he must have been a drug dealer or doing witchcraft.”
There are now three properties believed to have been used by Abedi to make his bomb.
Six weeks before the bombing, Abedi rented a second property in Blackley, eight miles from his home, paying £700 in cash.
Police are also reported to have discovered extensive bomb-making materials at the Abedi home in Fallowfield, prompting fears other explosive devices could have been made.
Despite never holding down a job, Abedi was able to travel regularly between the UK and Libya, where his family live.
His father Ramadan, 51, was said to have collapsed when he was told what his son had done.
Ramadan was arrested in Tripoli last week, along with his youngest son Hashem, 18. Third sibling Ismail, 23, was seized in Manchester on Tuesday.
Ramadan and wife Samia Tabbal, 50, were born in the Libyan capital and emigrated to London, then moved to Manchester.
They moved back to Tripoli after Gaddafi was toppled in 2011.
Security sources in Libya say Abedi’s mother, who is also being held, has claimed she had no idea about his suicide bomb plot.
Samia has been questioned along with Abedi ’s sister Jomana, 18, by Libyan special forces probing his links to Islamic State fanatics. They told the Tripoli security forces they did not even know he was in England.
Five days before the attack, Abedi had asked his mother for his passport – which had been confiscated by his father – saying he needed it to go on a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia.
The bomber called Hashem on the night of the attack and asked to speak to their mother.
Special Deterrence Force spokesman Ahmed Bin Salem said: “She told us Salman said, ‘ I’m sorry, mum. You have to forgive me,’ before hanging up the phone.
“The mother said she was very surprised and confused by the phone call and didn’t understand what was going on because he was supposed to be in Saudi Arabia on umrah [pilgrimage].”