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Manchester police say they are investigating a network as they make more arrests in relation to the suicide bombing at an Ariana Grande concert that killed 22 people.
Key points:
- Britain's Interior Minister said it was "likely, possible" others were involved in attack
- She said she believed Salman Abedi had recently returned from Libya
- Up to 3,800 military personnel will be deployed on the streets of Britain
"I think it's very clear that this is a network that we are investigating," Chief Constable Ian Hopkins of the Greater Manchester Police told reporters.
"There's extensive investigations going on and activity taking place across Greater Manchester as we speak."
Earlier, police said they had arrested three more people in the city's south, where a day earlier a 23-year-old man was also arrested and a number of homes were searched.
Authorities also named the suspected bomber as Salman Abedi, a 22-year-old who was born in Manchester to parents of Libyan origin.
One man was arrested early Wednesday (local time) at a house just a 10-minute walk from Abedi's home.
Omar Alfa Khuri, who lives across the street, said he was woken at 2:30am by a loud noise and saw police take away the father of the family that lives there in handcuffs.
He said the man was named Adel and is in his 40s, with a wife and several children.
"There was a policeman, armed policeman, shouting at my neighbour ... and I realised there is something wrong here," he said.
"They arrested the father, and I think the rest of the family kind of disappeared."
He said he knew the man from the neighbourhood and the mosque but "in the last 15 years, I haven't seen him in trouble at all. I haven't seen police come to his house".
Chief Constable Hopkins declined to comment on whether police had found the alleged maker of the explosive device used in the attack.
Likely Salman Abedi did not act alone: Interior Minister
Abedi set off his improvised bomb about 10:30pm on Monday (local time) as crowds streamed out of the Manchester Arena.
But in an interview with BBC radio on Wednesday, Britian's Interior Minister Amber Rudd said it was likely others were also involved.
"It seems likely, possible, that he wasn't doing this on his own, so the intelligence services and the police are pursuing their leads in order to make sure they get all the information … that they need to keep us safe," Ms Rudd said.
Abedi was born in England, but Ms Rudd said she believed he had recently returned from Libya.
French Interior Minister Gerard Collomb said British investigators had told French authorities Abedi had probably travelled to Syria as well.
"When this operation is over, we will want to look at his background and what happened, how he became radicalised and what support he might have been given," she said.
Asked if Abedi was known to the intelligence services, Ms Rudd said: "The security services will know a lot of people. It doesn't mean they are expected to arrest everybody that they know, but it is somebody that they had known before and I'm sure when this investigation concludes we'll be able to find out more".
The official threat level in the country has been raised to its highest level, "critical", meaning an attack is expected imminently.
The Interior Minister said up to 3,800 military personnel would be deployed on Britain's streets in response to the worst militant attack in over a decade.
Ms Rudd said the soldiers would take on guard duties at places like Buckingham Palace and Downing Street to free up police to focus on patrols and investigation.
The changing of the guard ceremony at Buckingham Palace, a draw for tourists, was cancelled because it requires support from police officers, which authorities decided was not a good use of police resources given the threat level.
The Chelsea football team announced it would cancel Sunday's victory parade in London that was to have celebrated the team's Premier League title win this season.
Information leaks 'irritating'
Ms Rudd also said it was "irritating" that information about the investigation into the bombing had been leaked by US security sources before the British police were ready to go public with it.
She was asked about the fact that some information about Abedi, including his name, had come out from the United States and whether she would look again at information sharing with other countries.
"Yes, quite frankly. I mean the British police have been very clear that they want to control the flow of information in order to protect operational integrity, the element of surprise, so it is irritating if it gets released from other sources and I have been very clear with our friends that should not happen again," she said.
Asked whether the leaks had compromised the investigation, she said: "I wouldn't go that far but I can say that they are perfectly clear about the situation and that it shouldn't happen again".
The identities of the victims are becoming known little by little. They included an eight-year-old girl, two teenage girls and a 28-year-old man.
A Polish couple who had come to collect their daughters after the concert also died, Poland's foreign minister said. The daughters were safe.
Chief Constable Hopkins said a serving police officer was among the dead.
Police said they were now confident they knew the identity of all the people who had died and had made contact with all the families.
They said they would formally name the victims after forensic post-mortems, which would take four or five days.
The bombing also left more than 60 people wounded, some with life-threatening injuries.
"We are now treating 64 individuals … of those approximately 20 are receiving critical care, that means very urgent care," Jon Rouse, chief officer for health and social care services in the Greater Manchester area, told Sky News.
"There is damage to major organs, major injuries in terms of limbs and some of these individuals are going to need very long term care and support. These are highly traumatic injuries."
AP/Reuters
Topics: terrorism, laws, law-crime-and-justice, unrest-conflict-and-war, united-kingdom
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