Troops on the streets in race to foil second terror attack
Theresa May says up to 5,000 soldiers will be deployed to guard major events Threat level to ‘critical’, the highest alert, suggesting that an attack is imminent Fears accomplices of Manchester bomber Salman Abedi are planning further atrocities
UP TO 5,000 soldiers will be deployed on the streets amid fears that the Manchester suicide bomber had accomplices preparing further attacks, Theresa May announced last night.
For the first time in 10 years, the Prime Minister said the terror threat had risen to the highest possible level – from severe to critical – meaning an attack is “expected imminently”.
Investigators fear that the Britishborn bomber Salman Abedi, a 22-yearold of Libyan descent, was part of a wider network of Isil-inspired terrorists, including a bomb-maker, who may still be at large.
Special Forces were last night deployed to Manchester ready to engage in the hunt for accomplices of Abedi, who killed 22 concert-goers in Britain’s worst terrorist atrocity for 12 years.
Outlining the increased risk, Mrs May said: “It is a possibility we cannot ignore that there is a wider group of individuals linked to this attack.”
Mrs May also announced that troops would replace police officers at setpiece events including sports venues and concerts. It will be the first time since 2003 that soldiers are deployed on the streets.
With the FA Cup final this weekend, Mrs May acted on the advice of the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre after chairing two meetings of the Cobra emergency committee. Security will also be stepped up at major public events and terrorist targets such as railway stations and airports.
Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley said “gaps in our knowledge” about Abedi had led to the increased threat level.
The country’s senior counter-terrorism officer said soldiers would replace police at fixed locations but later they could “augment our patrols” at transport hubs and major events.
It is the first time Britain has been on maximum terrorist alert since 2007, when a blazing car loaded with gas canisters was driven into Glasgow Airport.
A 23-year-old man was arrested in Manchester yesterday in connection with the attack and was being questioned last night.
Intelligence experts believe the device detonated at a concert by the pop singer Ariana Grande at the Manchester Arena on Monday night was so sophisticated that Abedi must have either been given specialist training abroad or used a bomb made by a technician who has not yet been captured.
It emerged that Abedi was known to security services. He had travelled to Libya, with reports suggesting he had visited in the past week, raising fears he had been trained there and posing questions for the security services on whether he should have been tracked. CCTV footage reportedly shows Abedi placing a suitcase on the floor in the foyer of the arena shortly before the bomb went off.
Police confirmed that an eight-yearold girl was among those killed. Grande has a huge following among young girls and other children are understood to be among the dead. Twelve children were among 59 taken to hospital after the atrocity, for which Isil claimed responsibility. Mrs May said the bombing “stands out for its appalling, sickening cowardice – deliberately targeting innocent, defenceless children and young people”.
In other developments:
The first victims of the attack were named as Saffie Rose Roussos, eight, Georgina Callander, 18, and John Atkinson, 26;
Saffie’s mother, Lisa, is reportedly among those seriously injured in hospital and did not know last night that her daughter was among the dead;
Vigils for the dead and wounded were held in Manchester and other cities across the UK;
The Queen described the attack as “barbaric” in a message of support to the people of Manchester;
Campaigning for the election was suspended “until further notice”. Sources confirmed to The Daily Telegraph that Special Forces soldiers had been sent to Manchester on standby to support the police in the hunt for other potential bombers.
Military bomb disposal experts were already involved in the operation yesterday when police stormed the house in the Fallowfield area of Manchester where Abedi is believed to have lived with relations.
Abedi is the first terrorist to successfully detonate a suicide bomb in Britain since four al-qaeda sympathisers killed 52 people in co-ordinated attacks on London in July 2005.
The terrorist, the first to specifically target children on British soil, was brought up in Manchester, where he attended a local comprehensive school before studying at Salford University.
His family fled Libya to escape Muammar Gaddafi’s regime, but his father moved back there during the Arab Spring in 2011. The intelligence services are urgently investigating whether Abedi had links to known extremists in Libya.
A number of Libyans who have spent time in Manchester before moving back to north Africa are known to have connections with al-qaeda and Isil.
Air Marshal Sir Stuart Peach, the Chief of the Defence Staff, told the Cobra committee he was ready to put armed soldiers on the streets if directed by the Prime Minister.
Mrs May said of the attack: “We struggle to comprehend the warped and twisted mind that sees a room packed with young children not as a scene to cherish, but as an opportunity for carnage. But we can continue to resolve to thwart such attacks in future, to take on and defeat the ideology that often fuels this violence, and if there turn out to be others responsible for this attack, to seek them out and bring them to justice.”
President Donald Trump said the bomber and any accomplices were “evil losers in life”. He said: “I won’t call them monsters because they would like that term. I will call them losers.”
President Vladimir Putin, China’s President Xi and Germany’s Chancellor Merkel were also among those who sent messages to the Prime Minister.