UK raises threat level to ‘critical’

• 3,800 troops to be deployed to free up police |
• Three fresh arrests in Manchester

Suspect’s father, brother arrested

• Libyan police have arrested a brother and the father of Salman Abedi, who is suspected of carrying out the bombing in the British city of Manchester, a relative and security sources said.
• Intelligence services have arrested Hashem Abedi, who, like his elder brother Salman, was born in Britain
• “Their father, Ramadan Abedi, has also just been arrested,” said Ahmed bin Salem, a spokesman for the police of Libya’s Government of National Accord

British Prime Minister Theresa May said that the UK has raised the threat level to maximum and the government was preparing to send soldiers on to streets as a second terror attack may be imminent after the Manchester pop concert bombing.

She said,  “The change in the threat level means that there will be additional resources and support made available to the police as they work to keep us all safe”.

May raised the threat level from severe to critical for the first time since 2007, saying the decision was taken after security forces were unable to rule out if Salman Abedi, the British-born suspect behind Monday’s suicide bombing at the concert in Manchester city that killed 22 persons, acted alone.

The raising of the threat level mean further attacks may be imminent. The move will see the Army deployed to secure key sites. “It is a possibility that we cannot ignore, that there is a wider group of individuals linked to this attack,” May said in a live address  after she chaired a meeting of the government’s emergency response Cobra committee.

Meanwhile, three more men were arrested in Manchesterin connection with investigations as the government indicated that the Libyan-origin bomber may not have acted alone. The new arrests came as the injured toll doubled from 59 to 119.

“Three men have been arrested after police executed warrants in South Manchester in connection with the ongoing investigation into Monday night’s horrific attack at the Manchester Arena,” a Greater Manchester Police statement said.

A 23-year-old man arrested in the wake of the attack on Monday night, carried out by a bomber identified as 22-year-old Salman Abedi, has been confirmed as his brother Ismail Abedi. With the new arrests, the total number of persons in custody rose to four.

UK home secretary Amber Rudd said that Abedi was known to security services “up to a point” and it is believed intelligence agencies had dug into his connections with Al-Qaida and Islamic State (IS) in his parents’ homeland of Libya.

Meanwhile, eight of the 22 victims of the attack are known to be eight-year-old Saffie Roussos, Lisa Lees, 50- year-old Jane Tweddle-Taylor, 29-year-old Martyn Hett, 15- year-old Olivia Campbell, 32-year-old Kelly Brewster, 28- year-old John Atkinson, and 18-year-old Georgina Callander.

Two Polish parents were also killed while collecting their daughters from the venue, the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said.