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Some members of Manchester network terror still at large: UK interior minister

Sunday, 28 May 2017 7:45 PM [ Last Update: Monday, 29 May 2017 1:52 AM ]

Salman Abedi on the night he carried out the Manchester Arena terror attack (Photo via Greater Manchester Police)

Some members of the terror network, whose activities led to Monday’s deadly attack in Manchester, are still potentially at large, says the British interior minister.

Amber Rudd made the comments on Sunday as a 25-year-old was arrested in connection with Manchester suicide bomber Salman Abedi in the Old Trafford area.

According to Greater Manchester Police, the 22-year-old, Briton born to Libyan parents, probably assembled his bomb in an apartment in the city center.

Police released a photo, showing Abedi before the Monday attack at an Ariana Grande concert in the Manchester Arena.

"We won't shy away from finding out what else we can do to keep people safe. I mean the budget has already gone up significantly. We're recruiting 1,900 people for MI5, but you know we will look at this in a way to learn from it, to make sure that we keep people safe going forward. So if there is a need for more recruitment or more security or more armed vehicles, which we are investing in as well, we'll look at doing that,” Rudd said during the state-funded BBC's Andrew Marr Show.

She made the remarks in the wake of several arrests, which made authorities lower the terrorism threat level, citing progress in the investigation.

"We are making good progress with the companies who have put in place end to end encryption. Some of them are being more constructive than others, but we will continue to build on that. The area that I'm most concerned about is the internet companies who are continuing to publish the hate publications, the hate material that is contributing the radicalizing people in this country,” said the British interior minister. “So we're continuing to build on better relationships with the internet, to ask them as the experts to make those changes so that people don't get radicalized and the terrorists don't have somewhere to hide."

Local Muslim leaders in Manchester have expressed concern about rising Islamophobic incidents and hate crimes against Muslims following the Manchester terror attack, in which 22 people lost their lives and dozens more were wounded.

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