MANCHESTER: Salman Abedi, the suicide bomber who killed 22 people in an attack on a pop concert in Manchester, was a business student who dropped out of university.
Born to a Libyan family in Britain´s third biggest city, newspapers said he was known to the security services and the Financial Times said he had turned to extremism in recent years.
Abedi, 22, was named by police and Prime Minister Theresa May the day after the deadly attack, which also left dozens wounded, on the concert by US pop star Ariana Grande, who has a large teenage girl following.
“The perpetrator was Salman Ramadan Abedi, who was born and brought up in Britain,” May said, condemning his actions as “callous and cowardly”.
Abedi´s family have lived in the Fallowfield area of south Manchester for at least 10 years, according to The Daily Telegraph newspaper.
Armed police raided an address in the modestly well-to-do area on Tuesday, carrying out a controlled explosion to gain entry.
A 23-year-old man was also arrested in the south of the city in connection with the attack.
Fallowfield resident Peter Jones, 53, described the area as “quiet and safe”.
Jones told a foreign agency that he was “shocked” and “surprised” when he heard that the suspect was from there.
Media reports said Abedi´s parents fled Libya to escape the regime of former dictator Moamer Kadhafi.
Around 16,000 Libyans live in Britain and Manchester is home to the largest community, according to the BBC. It was the focus of celebrations when the Kadhafi regime fell in 2011.
Reports said the suicide bomber was the second youngest of four children, including another son and one daughter.
One member of Manchester´s Libyan community told The Guardian newspaper: “He was such a quiet boy, always very respectful towards me.
“His brother Ismael is outgoing, but Salman was very quiet. He is such an unlikely person to have done this.”
Abedi had recently returned from Libya, according to The Times newspaper´s front page Wednesday, which cited a school friend as saying he left three weeks ago and returned in the last few days.
Police said they were urgently seeking to establish whether Abedi worked alone, or acted as part of a larger network.
Abedi began studying business and management at Salford University in Manchester in 2014, according to a news agency, but he dropped out after two years and did not complete his degree.
He did not live in university accommodation, had not been in any trouble at the university, was not on any radar for pastoral or social care and was not known to have participated in any university societies.
Abedi used an improvised explosive device, apparently packed with metal, to massacre concertgoers and end his own life.
Citing CCTV footage recovered by detectives, The Times reported Abedi had placed the device in a suitcase which he set on the ground before it detonated.
Around 22 people including children died,
shocking news
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