Teenager held at Liverpool airport over Manchester bombing | UK news
A 19-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of terrorism offences at Liverpool John Lennon airport in connection with the Manchester Arena attack.
The teenager was arrested on Friday and a property in Fallowfield, south Manchester, was being searched as part of the investigation, police said.
It is understood that the arrested suspect is not Hashem Abedi, the younger brother of suicide bomber Salman Abedi who is being held in Libya.
The arrest is the 23rd under the investigation into the suicide bombing at an Ariana Grande concert on 22 May in which Salman Abedi killed 22 other people. It comes a day after detectives said they believed the bomber did not act alone when preparing the deadliest attack on UK soil since the 7/7 bombings exactly 12 years ago.
Three police vans with riot shields attached, including one specialist operations vehicle, were stationed outside a red-brick semi-detached house on Thelwall Avenue on Friday, around the corner from Abedi’s family home in Fallowfield.
Neighbours said police letters were put through their doors shortly before the afternoon raid, warning them that they might hear controlled explosions.
One neighbour who lives directly opposite the raided house, who gave his name as Omar, said the family who lived there were related to the Abedis. He said two young brothers lived there with their mother, while their father had been in Libya for a number of years.
“They’re nice lads, they play football, go to college. I used to speak to Salman and he used to say they’re my family. They’re Libyan and Muslims,†he said.
Omar said the father had been in Libya for four or five years and that the man’s older son had not been seen recently. “They’re nice guys, I’m sure he’s innocent. Obviously they’re related to Salman, that’s why he’s been arrested,†he said.
Another neighbour, Ali Mohamed, said he used to see Salman Abedi socialising with the young men who live at the property. “They used to be out there, all of them in a group,†he said, gesturing to the front garden of the house.
“I did see him [Abedi] but he didn’t show any danger or anything bad. He was just a normal kid in a normal neighbourhood until things started to surface in the news you start to see the cracks.â€
A woman wearing a fur-lined coat was seen being led from the property into the back of an unmarked police car about an hour after the raid. A forensics officer wearing blue overalls was seen photographing the inside of bins in the front garden of the property.
Investigators said on Thursday that although Abedi was not part of a terrorist network there were others who knew he was planning to detonate a substantial nail bomb at the Manchester Arena concert.
Counter-terrorism officers are poised to question Abedi’s 20-year-old brother, Hashem. They have contacted Libyan authorities to obtain access to him.
Hashem was arrested in Libya shortly after the attack on 22 May, along with his and Salman’s father, Ramadan. Both are being held by the Special Deterrence Force, also called Rada.
During the briefing on Thursday, DCS Russ Jackson, head of north-west counter-terrorism policing, said: “We do believe that there are other people potentially involved in this. We do believe further arrests are possible.
“We are currently engaging with the Crown Prosecution Service and the Libyan authorities. This is a live criminal investigation where central to it are 22 murdered people with grieving families.â€
In an account of the hours prior to the attack, Jackson revealed that Abedi had spent several hours “milling around†the busy city centre before eventually deciding to detonate his bomb at the concert.
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