The property in Fallowfield where Abedi lived was raided on 23 May. Armed police breached the house with a controlled explosion and searched it. Abedi's 23-year-old brother was arrested in
Chorlton-cum-Hardy in south Manchester in relation to the attack. Three other men were arrested, and police initially spoke of a network supporting the bomber; they later announced that Abedi had sourced all the bomb components himself and that they now believed he had largely acted alone. On 6 July, police said that they believed others had been aware of Abedi's plans. A total of 22 people were arrested in connection with the attack, but had all been released without
charge by 11 June following the police's conclusion that Abedi was likely to have acted alone, even though others may have been aware of his plans. Within hours of the attack, Abedi's name and other information given confidentially to security services in the United States and France were leaked to the press, leading to condemnation from Home Secretary
Amber Rudd. Following the publication of crime scene photographs of the backpack bomb used in the attack in the 24 May edition of
The New York Times, United Kingdom counterterrorism police chiefs said the release of the material was detrimental to the investigation. On 25 May, the GMP said it had stopped sharing information on the attack with the US intelligence services. Theresa May said she would make clear to then president
Donald Trump that 'intelligence that has been shared must be made secure.' Trump described the leaks to the news media as 'deeply troubling' and pledged to carry out a full investigation. British officials blamed the leaks on 'the breakdown of normal discipline at the
White House and in the
US security services'.
The New York Times editor
Dean Baquet declined to apologise for publishing the backpack bomb photographs, saying 'We live in different press worlds' and that the material was not classified at the highest level. On 26 May, then United States secretary of state
Rex Tillerson said the United States government accepted responsibility for the leaks. A
public inquiry into the attack was launched in September 2020. The first of three reports to be produced was a 200-page report published on 17 June 2021. It found that "there were a number of missed opportunities to alter the course of what happened that night" and that "more should have been done" by police and private security guards to prevent the bombing. In February 2022, it was reported that security services were 'struggling to cope' during the period leading up to the bombing. One MI5 officer told the inquiry that he had warned superiors that something might get through due to large numbers of documents needing processing. Intelligence that MI5 had before the attack and which might have led to Salman Abedi being placed under investigation was not passed to
counter-terrorism police. The Manchester Arena Inquiry published a press release announcing that the inquiry officially concluded on 8 June 2023. On 18 October 2023, Coroner Sir John Saunders ruled that Salman Abedi's death was 'suicide while undertaking a terror attack'. On 27 March 2018, a report by civil servant
Bob Kerslake and commissioned by mayor
Andy Burnham was published. The Kerslake Report was "an independent review into the preparedness for, and emergency response to, the Manchester Arena attack." In the report, Kerslake largely praised the
Greater Manchester Police and
British Transport Police, and noted that it was 'fortuitous' that the
North West Ambulance Service was unaware of the declaration of Operation Plato, a protocol under which all responders should have withdrawn from the arena in case of an active killer on the premises. However, it found that the
Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service was "brought to a point of paralysis" as their response was delayed for two hours due to poor communication between the firefighters'
liaison officer and the police force. The report was critical of
Vodafone for the catastrophic failure of an emergency helpline hosted on a platform provided by
Content Guru, saying that delays in getting information caused "significant stress and upset" to families. It also criticised some news media, saying, 'To have experienced such intrusive and overbearing behaviour at a time of such enormous vulnerability seemed to us to be completely and utterly unacceptable', but noting that, 'We recognise that this was some, but by no means all of the media and that the media also have a positive and important role to play.'
Salman Abedi The bomber, Salman Ramadan Abedi (31 December 1994 – 22 May 2017) was identified as a 22-year-old
British Muslim of Libyan ancestry. According to
US intelligence sources, Abedi was identified by the
bank card that he had with him and the identification was confirmed using
facial recognition technology. He was born in Manchester to a
Salafi family of Libyan-born refugees who had settled in south Manchester after fleeing to the United Kingdom to escape the government of
Muammar Gaddafi. He had two brothers and a sister. Abedi grew up in
Whalley Range and lived in
Fallowfield. Neighbours described the Abedis as a very traditional and 'super religious' family, who regularly attended
Didsbury Mosque. Abedi attended
Wellacre Technology College,
Burnage Academy for Boys and
The Manchester College. A former tutor remarked that Abedi was 'a very slow, uneducated and passive person'. He also reportedly said to his friends that being a suicide bomber 'was okay' and fellow college students raised concerns about his behaviour. Abedi's father was a member of the
Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, a
Salafi jihadist organisation proscribed by the
United Nations, and father and son fought for the group in Libya in 2011 as part of the movement to
overthrow Muammar Gaddafi. Abedi's parents, both born in
Tripoli, remained in Libya in 2011, The brothers were rescued from Tripoli by the
Royal Navy survey ship in August 2014 as part of a group of 110 British citizens as the
Libyan civil war erupted, taken to
Malta and flown back to the UK. According to a retired European intelligence officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, Abedi met with members of the ISIS
Battar brigade in
Sabratha, Libya and continued to be in contact with the group upon his return to the UK. An
imam at
Didsbury mosque recalled that Abedi looked at him with hate after he preached against
ISIS and
Ansar al-Sharia in 2015. According to an acquaintance, Abedi was 'outgoing' and consumed alcohol, while another said that he was a 'regular kid who went out and drank' until about 2016. Abedi was also known to have used cannabis.
The Guardian reported that despite dropping out from further education, he was still receiving student loan funding in April 2017. He was known to British security services and police but was not regarded as a high risk, having been linked to petty crime but never flagged up for radical views. A community worker told the BBC he had called a hotline five years before the bombing to warn police about Abedi's views and members of Britain's
Libyan diaspora said they had 'warned authorities for years' about Manchester's
Islamist radicalisation. Abedi was allegedly reported to authorities for his
extremism by five community leaders and family members and had been banned from a mosque; the
Chief Constable of Greater Manchester, however, said Abedi was not known to the
Prevent anti-radicalisation programme. On 29 May 2017,
MI5 launched an internal inquiry into its handling of the warnings it had received about Abedi and a second, 'more in depth' inquiry, into how it missed the danger. On 22 November 2018, the
Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament published a report which said that MI5 had acted 'too slowly' in its dealings with Abedi. The committee's report noted 'What we can say is that there were a number of a failings in the handling of Salman Abedi's case. While it is impossible to say whether these would have prevented the devastating attack on 22 May, we have concluded that as a result of the failings, potential opportunities to prevent it were missed.'
Hashem Abedi Abedi's younger brother, Hashem (born 8 April 1997), was arrested by
Libyan security forces on 23 May. Hashem was suspected of planning an attack in Libya, was said to be in regular touch with Salman and was aware of the plan to bomb the arena, but not the date. On 1 November 2017, the UK requested Libya to
extradite Hashem to return to the United Kingdom, in order to face trial. On 17 July 2019, Hashem was charged with
murder,
attempted murder and
conspiracy to cause an explosion. He had been arrested in Libya and
extradited to the United Kingdom. His trial began on 5 February 2020. On 17 March, Hashem Abedi was found guilty on 22 charges of murder, on the grounds that he had helped his brother to source the materials used in the bombing and had assisted with the manufacture of the explosives which were used in the attack. On 20 August, Hashem Abedi was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 55 years. The judge,
Jeremy Baker, said that sentencing rules prevented him from imposing a
whole life order as Abedi had been 20 years old at the time of the offence. The minimum age for a whole life order is 21 years old. Abedi's 55-year minimum term is the longest minimum term ever imposed by a British court. On 12 April 2025, Hashem Abedi attacked prison officers at
HM Prison Frankland by throwing hot
cooking oil on them, and stabbed them with
makeshift weapons. Three officers were hospitalised with serious injuries. The incident occurred in a separation centre for prisoners regarded as dangerous and extremist. Abedi had previously been convicted for assaulting prison officers at
HM Prison Belmarsh in 2022.
Ismail Abedi In October 2021, it was reported that Abedi's older brother, Ismail, had left the United Kingdom. He had been
summonsed by Judge
John Saunders to testify before the public inquiry into the bombing. Saunders had refused Ismail's request for immunity from prosecution while testifying. Ismail was found guilty
in absentia of failing to comply with a legal notice and a warrant was issued for his arrest. ==Aftermath==