{"id":321966,"date":"2017-05-23T19:01:25","date_gmt":"2017-05-23T19:01:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=321966"},"modified":"2017-05-23T19:01:25","modified_gmt":"2017-05-23T19:01:25","slug":"manchester-attack-salman-abedi-named-as-bomber-by-police","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=321966","title":{"rendered":"Manchester attack: Salman Abedi named as bomber by police"},"content":{"rendered":"

Salman Abedi has been named by police as the suspected suicide bomber who killed 22 people and injured 59 at Manchester Arena on Monday night.<\/p>\n

The 22-year-old was Manchester born and from a family of Libyan origin, the BBC understands.<\/p>\n

So far three victims have been named – Saffie Rose Roussos, eight, Georgina Callander and John Atkinson, 28.<\/p>\n

Greater Manchester Police said the priority was to establish whether Abedi had worked alone or not.<\/p>\n

A vigil is being held in front of the town hall in Manchester’s Albert Square.<\/p>\n

‘Vigil for peace’ at Manchester’s Albert Square<\/p>\n

Abedi is thought to have blown himself up in the arena’s foyer shortly after 22:30 BST on Monday, as fans were beginning to leave a concert by US singer Ariana Grande.<\/p>\n

Greater Manchester Police Chief Constable Ian Hopkins passed on “heartfelt sympathies to all the innocent people caught up in last night’s despicable act”, adding that specially-trained family liaison officers were supporting families.<\/p>\n

\"John<\/span>
Image caption<\/span>John Atkinson was the third victim named<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Eight-year-old Saffie Rose Roussos was a pupil at Tarleton Primary School, in Lancashire.<\/p>\n

Her head teacher, Chris Upton, said she had been “simply a beautiful little girl in every aspect of the word” and was “loved by everyone”.<\/p>\n

John Atkinson was from Bury in Greater Manchester.<\/p>\n

Student Georgina Callander, believed to have been 18, has also been named as among the dead.<\/p>\n

She had been studying health and social care at Runshaw College in Leyland, Lancashire.<\/p>\n

The wounded are being treated at eight hospitals around the city, with 12 children under the age of 16 among them.<\/p>\n

Several people are still missing, including teenagers Laura MacIntyre and Eilidh MacLeod, from Barra in the Outer Hebrides, 15-year-old Olivia Campbell, Chloe Rutherford, 17, and Liam Curry, 19.<\/p>\n

Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said police were in contact with Laura and Eilidh’s families, adding: “It is hard for any of us to imagine the anguish that their families are going through right now.<\/p>\n

“They are in our thoughts.”<\/p>\n

In a statement in Downing Street on Tuesday, the prime minister said the bombing had been a “callous terrorist attack” that targeted “defenceless young people”.<\/p>\n

Number 10 later said Mrs May – who is now in Manchester – had been updated “through [Monday] night” and had phoned Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn at 04:00 BST to brief him.<\/p>\n

It is the worst terrorist attack in the UK since the 7 July bombings in 2005, in which 52 people were killed by four suicide bombers<\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

So-called Islamic State has said – via IS channels on the messaging app Telegram – it was behind the Manchester attack, but this has not been verified.<\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n

Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Salman Abedi has been named by police as the suspected suicide bomber who killed 22 people and injured 59 at Manchester Arena on Monday night. The 22-year-old was Manchester born and from a family of Libyan origin, the BBC understands. So far three victims have been named – Saffie Rose Roussos, eight, Georgina Callander and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":321744,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[107],"tags":[7397],"class_list":["post-321966","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","tag-manchester-bombing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321966","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=321966"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321966\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=321966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=321966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=321966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}