Manchester bomber was not 'acting alone': UK Home Secretary

The suicide bomber who attacked a Manchester concert was likely to have been working with other terrorists but was only known to the security services "up to a point", British Home Secretary Amber Rudd said on Wednesday.

Salman Abedi, 22, carried out an IED blast at the end of US singer Ariana Grande's concert at the Manchester Arena on Monday that prompted the UK to raise its terror threat level to the highest category on Tuesday, the Guardian reported. At least 22 persons were killed and 64 were injured in the bombing.

Rudd said Abedi was known to the intelligence agencies. "It seems likely, possible, that he wasn't doing this on his own," she said.

The Home Secretary said up to 3,800 troops will be deployed on the streets around Britain after the country's threat level was raised from "severe" to "critical", meaning more attacks may be imminent.

Under the order, armed military personnel replaced police guarding "key sites" and events like concerts and sports matches.

Rudd also said there would be an "uplift" in Prevent, the government's anti-radicalisation programme, after June.

Abedi, who died in the powerful blast, was born in Manchester to parents of Libyan descent, had ties to al-Qaeda and had received terror training abroad, a US intelligence official said. He had a sister and two brothers. Abedi's mother and father were now believed to be back in Libya, and for a while Abedi left Britain too but returned in the last few days, according to reports.

Abedi's family lived at more than one address in the city, including a property at Elsmore Road in the Fallowfield area that was raided by police.

Abedi had "likely" been to Syria, French Interior Minister Gerard Collomb said on Wednesday. He told BFMTV that British intelligence services had informed their French counterparts that 22-year-old Salman Abedi, who was of Libyan origin, "grew up in Britain and then suddenly, after a trip to Libya and then likely to Syria, became radicalised and decided to carry out this attack".

Collomb said it was "possible" that Abedi had had assistance from other people, adding: "In any case, the links with Daesh are proven."