The bomb maker who provided Salman Abedi with the explosive device used to cause carnage at Manchester Arena may still at large, police have revealed.
Abedi slaughtered 22 people and maimed dozens of others setting off a suicide bomb after an Ariana Grande concert on Monday night.
There are now reports police believe the 22-year-old terrorist had been given the explosive – packed with nuts and bolts – by a bomb maker who is still at large and preparing to mastermind further attacks.
It comes after police in Manchester arrested three men in connection with the blast and then raided a building in the city centre – just two miles from the scene of the atrocity.
It is understood that bomb making equipment and traces of materials needed to make the type of sophisticated device used on Monday night were not found at Abedi’s home following the raid by armed police in Manchester hours after the outrage.
Military specialists had made an electronic sweep of the property to show there was no IED booby trap waiting for the police assault team who raided it.
Intelligence officials say they believe the 22 year-old terrorist either made the bomb elsewhere with the help of others or was given the device and trigger mechanism by someone else, possibly during his visit to London in the days before the attack.
They are seeking to discover if it was made-up of components such as hydrogen peroxide or a powerful explosive like PETN, meaning it is likely to have been brought in from abroad.
French officials said yesterday that Abedi had visited Islamic State fighters in Syria and it is known he had recently been in Libya where there are both ISIS and Al Qaeda training camps.
Significantly, members of his family are said to have links to Al Qaeda. Both ISIS and Al Qaeda are known to have camps in Libya providing instruction in bomb making and it is possible Abedi was given instruction there but officials say they think it ‘unlikely’ he made the Manchester bomb on his own.
MI5 are looking again at those who have returned from Syria, Iraq and Libya for clues to someone who has not been ‘compromised’ and crossed the security radar who could have trained in bomb making there.
Jihadi fighters there have regularly made devices that have been packed with shrapnel, nails, nuts and bombs to cause maximum loss of life and mayhem of the type used in Manchester.
These can be sophisticated devices and while the recipes are well known, they require a degree of engineering skills.
In Syria and Iraq explosives are plentiful much of it captured while in Libya it is even easier to obtain, often smuggled in from Niger and Chad.
Detectives say it is ‘possible but unlikely’ explosives would have been smuggled in to the UK from the region, stressing it is ‘more likely’ to have come from the former Yugoslavia, if it did come from abroad.
‘The type of device used takes considerable expertise to build, transport and detonate,’ one former intelligence official said.
‘You have to acquire all the components, plan and prepare without raising any alarms and this is not easy.
‘We have seen many who wished to be terrorists but very few, thankfully, with the capability to carry it through. Most would choose not to use a bomb simply because it is too difficult. This is very different and several levels above what we have seen in this country recently.
‘While it is possible to teach yourself to make a bomb, it is probable that someone else made the device for Abedi and he is still at large, probably in this country, which is why the level of threat has been raised.’
He added : ‘The reality we face is that if a bomb maker is at large, it is highly likely he is linked to a cell with a support network all of whom have not been compromised and that is disturbing. It means there are likely to be more devices until the person making them is detained or stopped.’
Source: Manchester Arena bomb maker may still be at large | Daily Mail Online
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