The attacker who detonated a bomb at a pop concert in Manchester on Monday, killing 22 people and himself, has been named by police as 22-year-old Salman Abedi.
Ian Hopkins, chief constable of Greater Manchester police, said: “I can confirm that the man suspected of carrying out last night’s atrocity is 22-year-old Salman Abedi, however he has not yet been formally named by the coroner and I wouldn’t wish to comment any more about him at this stage.”
“The priority remains to establish whether he was acting alone or as part of a network,” Hopkins added.
The Telegraph reported that Abedi was born in Manchester to Libyan parents and grew up in the Whalley Range district in the south of the city.
Electoral roll searches show that a man called Salman Abedi lived at 21 Elsmore Road in Fallowfield, south Manchester – which appears to be the same address where police carried out forensic searches and a controlled explosion earlier on Tuesday.
Chief Constable Hopkins said the explosion was to gain entry to the house and posed no threat to the wider community.
Neighbours told Report focus hat the family were from Libya and were referred to as “the Libyans”. The family also flew a big Libyan flag from the house.
Neighbours described Abedi as being 5′ 6″, young-looking for his age, and clean-shaven. They said the occupants of the house had lived there for a few years but no more than 10.
Salman Abedi was a student at the University of Salford, Manchester, the institution confirmed in a statement Tuesday. “This is a further shock to all of us, and we understand how this will affect all members of our University community,”
Abedi and his family worshipped at the Didsbury Mosque and Islamic Centre and were well-known to the community, The Guardian reported.
Mohammed Saeed, the mosque’s iman, said that while he was delivering an anti-ISIS speech in 2015, Abedi looked so angry at the religious leader’s words that friends feared he would attack him while he was speaking. “Salman showed me a face of hate after that sermon,” he said. “He was showing me hatred.
Police confirmed that a controlled explosion took place in Fallowfield on Tuesday morning, and local people confirmed hearing a loud bang on social media. Car alarms were set off by the noise and a heavy police presence shepherded bystanders away. A separate raid took place in Carlton Road in nearby Whalley Range.
