Manchester Arena bombing
At 22:31 on the 22nd of May 2017, a bomb exploded in the City Room of Manchester Arena in England. The audience of a concert by the American pop singer Ariana Grande was streaming out toward the exits. The Manchester Arena bombing was the deadliest act of terrorism in the United Kingdom since the London bombings of the 7th of July 2005. It was also the first suicide bombing in the country since those attacks. The man responsible carried a large backpack.
How did he reach a crowded public space with it? Who noticed him beforehand, and why did nobody stop him? What had the authorities already known about him? And what did Britain change in the years that followed?
Salman Ramadan Abedi was born in Manchester on the 31st of December 1994. His parents were Libyan-born refugees who had fled the government of Muammar Gaddafi and settled in south Manchester. He had two brothers and a sister. The family grew up in Whalley Range and later lived in Fallowfield. Neighbours called them very traditional and 'super religious', and they were regulars at Didsbury Mosque.
Abedi's schooling took him through Wellacre Technology College, Burnage Academy for Boys and The Manchester College. One former tutor described him as 'a very slow, uneducated and passive person'. At high school he joined a group of students who accused a teacher of Islamophobia for asking what they thought of suicide bombers. He also reportedly told friends that being a suicide bomber 'was okay', and fellow college students raised concerns about his behaviour.
His father belonged to the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, a Salafi jihadist organisation proscribed by the United Nations. In 2011 the group took part in the movement to overthrow Gaddafi, and one account says father and son fought in it. Abedi's parents, both born in Tripoli, remained in Libya that year. Their 17-year-old son returned to live in the United Kingdom.
In 2014 Abedi took a gap year and went back to Libya with his younger brother Hashem to live with their parents. He was injured in Ajdabiya that year while fighting for an Islamist group. As the Libyan civil war erupted, the Royal Navy survey ship HMS Enterprise rescued the brothers from Tripoli in August 2014. They were among 110 British citizens taken to Malta and flown home.
A retired European intelligence officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Abedi met members of the ISIS Battar brigade in Sabratha, Libya. According to that account, he stayed in contact with the group after returning to Britain. In 2015 an imam at Didsbury Mosque preached against ISIS and Ansar al-Sharia, and later recalled that Abedi looked at him with hate.
Accounts of Abedi's daily life are mixed. One acquaintance called him outgoing and said he drank alcohol. Another described a regular kid who went out drinking until about 2016. He was also known to have used cannabis. He enrolled at the University of Salford in September 2014 to study business administration, then dropped out to work in a bakery. Manchester police believe he used student loans to finance the plot, including overseas travel to learn bomb-making. The Guardian reported that he was still receiving loan funding in April 2017, a month before the attack.
Abedi's sister was the first to offer an explanation. She said her brother was driven by anger over Muslim children dying in bombings that stemmed from the United States-led intervention in the Syrian civil war.
A family friend pointed to a more personal trigger. On the 12th of May 2016, a Manchester gang ran over and stabbed Abdul Wahab Hafidah to death. He was a friend of Salman and of his younger brother Hashem. According to the family friend, Salman vowed revenge at the funeral.
Police later found evidence that the brothers had taken part in the Libyan civil war and met members of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. Photographs showed them posing with the sons of Abu Anas al-Libi, a high-ranking Al-Qaeda fighter in Libya.
On the 23rd of May, the Islamic State posted a statement on the messaging app Telegram claiming the attack. It said a 'soldier of the Khilafah' had set off an explosive among 'the crusaders in the British city of Manchester'.
Not everyone accepted the claim at face value. Dan Coats, the United States director of national intelligence, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that ISIS frequently claims responsibility and that the United States could not confirm it. Former FBI agent Ali Soufan spotted an error. The statement placed the blast in the middle of the arena rather than its foyer, and he suggested the group's media apparatus was weaker than usual. French interior minister Gérard Collomb took a firmer line. In an interview with BFM TV, he said Abedi may have been to Syria and had 'proven' links with ISIS.
A BBC report raised another question about the imam at Didsbury Mosque. It claimed he had called for armed jihad ten days before Abedi bought his concert ticket. Greater Manchester Police investigated and found that no offences had been committed.
German police sources say Abedi passed through Düsseldorf Airport four days before the bombing, on his way home from Istanbul. He was back in Manchester on the 18th of May after a trip to Libya.
At 18:14 that day, CCTV footage first identified him leaving the Shudehill Interchange. He spoke briefly with an arena worker, then studied the queues and entrances in the City Room. Cameras caught him in the City Room again at 18:53 on the 21st of May, and at 18:34 on the 22nd of May, the day of the concert. On all three visits he was using his mobile phone and did not appear to be carrying an explosive.
After returning, Abedi bought bomb-making material and apparently built the device by himself. It used triacetone triperoxide, known as TATP, together with metal nuts and bolts that served as shrapnel. Many members of the ISIS Battar brigade are known to have trained people in bomb-making in Libya. Michael McCaul, then chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, called TATP 'a classic explosive device used by terrorists'.
The New York Times judged the bomb 'an improvised device made with forethought and care'. Its published images showed an explosive charge inside a lightweight metal container. That container was carried in either a black vest or a blue Karrimor backpack. The blast threw Abedi's torso through the doors to the arena, which may indicate the charge sat in the backpack.
Investigators also found a corroded 12-volt, 2.1 amp-hour lead acid battery made by GS Yuasa at the scene. A coroner's inquest later suggested the bomb was strong enough to kill people up to 20 m away.
The concert began at around 19:35, and Grande took the stage at 21:00. From 20:36 Abedi was heading for the men's toilet on the Victoria station concourse, and he left it at 20:48. Two British Transport Police community support officers and two Showsec security guards saw him there.
He then took the station concourse lift toward the City Room. Between 20:51 and 21:10, a Showsec employee spotted him on the mezzanine for less than ten seconds. At 21:13 he moved back toward the tram platform. While he waited in the City Room, he chose a spot that the arena's CCTV system did not cover.
Abedi began his final approach at 21:29 and arrived at 21:33. By 22:00 he had been noticed by a woman hired to prevent illegal screen recordings of the concert. She said she told a British Transport Police constable about him. That constable said she had no recollection of such a conversation.
Gaps in the police presence widened as the night went on. Five British Transport Police constables were scheduled to patrol the Victoria Exchange Complex, but only four attended. Between 22:00 and 22:31, none of the four was in the City Room, and two had left on their dinner break. The constables had ignored briefings to stagger their breaks. They had also ignored instructions to be at the City Room entrance 30 minutes before the concert ended.
Showsec expected a rush of people leaving, and a supervisor was in the City Room from 22:08 to 22:17. That supervisor did not go up to the mezzanine and did not see Abedi.
At 22:12 a member of the public asked Abedi what was in his bag. When he did not answer, the man feared it held a bomb and reported him. He was told the police already knew about Abedi. A Showsec employee heard the concern but was afraid of being seen as racist, so he did not approach Abedi. He tried to radio for help, but heavy radio traffic kept him from reaching anyone.
About 15 minutes before the attack, a Libyan official said, Abedi spoke by phone with his younger brother Hashem. The concert closed shortly before 22:30, and fans began leaving through the City Room, one of four entrances to the arena. At 22:30 Abedi came down from the mezzanine. The bomb he carried weighed more than 30 kg.
Within a minute of the blast, a police constable sent a radio message on the British Transport Police channel: 'We need more people at Victoria, we just had a loud bang'. Two sergeants in the Peninsula Building ran toward the arena when they heard the explosion. By 22:34, the command centre had been told of 'at least twenty casualties' and a definite bomb. It called for the North West Ambulance Service and Greater Manchester Police. The first vehicle arrived at 22:34, and a constable put the casualties at 60 by 22:39.
The first 999 call came at 22:31:52 from an injured bystander. A second call, at 22:32:40, wrongly reported gunshots as well as an explosion. The Greater Manchester Police duty officer learned of the bombing at 22:34 and sent firearms officers at once. Arriving on Trinity Way by 22:39, he suggested the incident might be a fireworks display. At 22:41 another firearms officer reported 'major casualties' and raised Operation Plato, the protocol for a marauding terrorist attack. The first two officers appeared on CCTV at the lower doors on Trinity Way at 22:42:44. Operation Plato was declared at 22:47 and a major incident at 23:04.
Sixty ambulances from the North West Ambulance Service attended. They carried 59 people to local hospitals and treated the walking wounded on site. Michael Daley, an off-duty consultant anaesthetist, was entered into the British Medical Journal's book of valour in June 2017 for his bravery. In total, 112 people were hospitalised and 27 more were treated for injuries that did not need a hospital stay. Of those 139 people, 79 were children, and 12 of the hospitalised were under 16.
On the 27th of March 2018, a review by civil servant Bob Kerslake, commissioned by Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham, examined the response. It largely praised the two police forces. It called it 'fortuitous' that the ambulance service was unaware of the Operation Plato declaration, since under that protocol all responders should have withdrawn from the arena. The fire and rescue service fared worse. Poor communication between its liaison officer and the police delayed its response by two hours and brought it to 'a point of paralysis'.
The review was also critical of Vodafone. An emergency helpline hosted on a platform from Content Guru failed catastrophically, and delays in getting information caused 'significant stress and upset' to families. Some news media were criticised for behaviour the review called 'completely and utterly unacceptable', though it stressed this applied to some outlets and by no means all. On security, the review found the arena's arrangements insufficient. Bag searches were inconsistent, and Abedi entered through the City Room, which lay outside the security zone.
An estimated 14,200 people were at the concert when the bomb went off. Besides the attacker, 22 people died. They were concert-goers and parents waiting in the entrance to collect their children. Ten of the dead were under 20. The youngest was an eight-year-old girl and the oldest was a 51-year-old woman. Twenty of the victims were from Britain and two were UK-based Polish nationals.
The count of the injured grew as the damage was assessed. Police first reported 119. On the 22nd of June 2017 they revised the figure to 250, adding severe psychological trauma and minor injuries. In May 2018 it rose to 800, and in December 2020 the public inquiry put it at 1,017. A study published in September 2019 said that 239 of those injuries were physical.
Martyn Hett, aged 29, was 4 m from the blast. Police and his family said the severity of the explosion meant he could be identified only by a tattoo of Deirdre Barlow on his leg. His name would later be given to a venue security law.
On the 25th of May, Queen Elizabeth II visited Royal Manchester Children's Hospital to meet victims, and called it 'very wicked' to attack children. Burnham called the attack 'evil'. Thousands gathered in Albert Square for a vigil, joined by Home Secretary Amber Rudd, Burnham and then Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. David Walker, the Bishop of Manchester, lit a candle. The Muslim Council of Britain condemned the attack as 'horrific'. A national minute's silence was observed that day, and in St Ann's Square it ended with applause followed by Oasis' 'Don't Look Back in Anger'.
Grande tweeted a sympathy message on the 23rd of May. It became the most-liked tweet on Twitter until one by Barack Obama after the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. She briefly suspended her Dangerous Woman Tour, and Us Weekly reported that she went home to Florida. In a 2018 interview with British Vogue, she said she was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder because of the attack.
On the 30th of May, Grande announced a benefit concert called One Love Manchester. It would support the We Love Manchester emergency fund, set up by Manchester City Council and the British Red Cross. Held at Old Trafford Cricket Ground on the 4th of June, it featured Grande, Take That, Miley Cyrus, Pharrell Williams, Niall Horan and Usher. People who had attended the arena show received free tickets. By the 5th of June it had raised US$13 million. A re-release of Grande's 2014 single 'One Last Time' and a cover of 'Over the Rainbow' added more, and the total reached £17 million. On the 14th of June, Grande became the first honorary citizen of Manchester.
Manchester Arena stayed closed until the 9th of September, when it reopened with a benefit concert led by Oasis songwriter Noel Gallagher. The victims are commemorated by the Glade of Light, a garden memorial near Manchester Cathedral. It opened to the public on the 5th of January 2022, with an official ceremony on the 10th of May. On the 9th of February 2022, vandals caused £10,000 of damage there. A 24-year-old man admitted the offence and received a two-year community order on the 22nd of June 2022.
Standing in front of 10 Downing Street, Prime Minister Theresa May condemned the 'sickening cowardice' of the attack. She travelled to Manchester with Rudd and led an emergency COBR meeting. It raised the national threat level to 'critical', its highest setting. On the 27th of May it dropped back to 'severe'. The bombing also triggered Operation Temperer for the first time since the Charlie Hebdo shooting in January 2015. Two days after the attack, 984 military personnel were deployed across London, including at the Palace of Westminster, Buckingham Palace and some nuclear sites. By the 30th of May, when the operation was deactivated, 1,400 had been deployed. The attack came two weeks before the 2017 general election, and Labour and Conservative campaigning was suspended. May also created the Commission for Countering Extremism, and Greater Manchester Police reported a surge in anti-Muslim hate crimes.
In November 2017 Burnham said May had intended to pay only £12 million of the £28 million estimated to help the city rebuild. May fully reimbursed Manchester in January 2018. A study in the American Political Science Review in 2021 expected a rally 'round the flag effect. Instead, May's approval ratings fell, and the researchers suggested her gender played a role.
Within hours of the attack, Abedi's name and information given in confidence to American and French security services were leaked to the press. Rudd condemned the leak. On the 24th of May, The New York Times published crime scene photographs of the backpack bomb, and counterterrorism police chiefs said this harmed the investigation. On the 25th of May, Greater Manchester Police stopped sharing information with United States intelligence services. May said she would tell President Donald Trump that 'intelligence that has been shared must be made secure'. Trump called the leaks 'deeply troubling'. New York Times editor Dean Baquet declined to apologise, saying 'We live in different press worlds'. On the 26th of May, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the United States government accepted responsibility for the leaks.
Armed police raided Abedi's Fallowfield home on the 23rd of May, breaching it with a controlled explosion. A 23-year-old brother was arrested in Chorlton-cum-Hardy, and three other men were arrested. Police first spoke of a network behind the bomber. They later said Abedi had sourced all the components himself and had largely acted alone. On the 6th of July they added that others had been aware of his plans. Of 22 people arrested, all had been released without charge by the 11th of June.
Abedi had been known to security services and police but was not regarded as a high risk. He was linked to petty crime and never flagged for radical views. A community worker told the BBC he had phoned a hotline five years earlier to warn police about Abedi. Five community leaders and family members reportedly reported his extremism, and he had been banned from a mosque. Yet the Chief Constable of Greater Manchester said Abedi was not known to the Prevent anti-radicalisation programme. MI5 launched an internal inquiry on the 29th of May 2017. On the 22nd of November 2018, Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee reported that MI5 had acted 'too slowly' and that potential opportunities to prevent the attack were missed.
Hashem Abedi, born on the 8th of April 1997, was arrested by Libyan security forces on the 23rd of May. He was said to be in regular touch with Salman and to have known of the plan, though not the date. The United Kingdom asked Libya to extradite him on the 1st of November 2017. He was charged on the 17th of July 2019 with murder, attempted murder and conspiracy to cause an explosion. His trial began on the 5th of February 2020. On the 17th of March he was found guilty of 22 murders for helping his brother source materials and assisting with the manufacture of the explosives. On the 20th of August, he received life imprisonment with a minimum term of 55 years. Judge Jeremy Baker said he could not impose a whole life order because Hashem was 20 at the time, and the minimum age is 21. No British court had ever set a longer minimum term. On the 12th of April 2025, Hashem attacked officers at HM Prison Frankland with hot cooking oil and makeshift weapons, and three were hospitalised. He had been convicted of assaulting officers at HM Prison Belmarsh in 2022.
In October 2021 it was reported that Abedi's older brother Ismail had left the United Kingdom. Judge John Saunders had summonsed him to testify before the public inquiry and refused his request for immunity from prosecution. Ismail was found guilty in absentia of failing to comply with a legal notice, and a warrant was issued for his arrest.
The public inquiry opened in September 2020. Its first report, 200 pages long, appeared on the 17th of June 2021. It found 'a number of missed opportunities to alter the course of what happened that night' and said 'more should have been done' by police and private security guards. In February 2022 it was reported that security services were 'struggling to cope' before the bombing. One MI5 officer told the inquiry he had warned superiors that something might get through because of the volume of documents. Intelligence held by MI5 that might have led to an investigation of Salman Abedi never reached counter-terrorism police. The inquiry concluded on the 8th of June 2023. On the 18th of October 2023, Coroner Sir John Saunders ruled that Abedi's death was 'suicide while undertaking a terror attack'.
In December 2022, Martyn's Law was expected to be introduced, but it did not reach Parliament before the 2024 general election. The Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Bill, known as Martyn's Law, appeared in the King's speech at the 2024 State Opening of Parliament. It went before Parliament in September 2024.
In October 2024, two survivors won a harassment case in the High Court against former television producer Richard Hall. He had claimed without evidence that the attack was an elaborate hoax by British government agencies and that no one was genuinely injured. In November 2024 the court awarded £45,000 in damages, with £22,500 paid to each survivor.
In December 2025, Manchester Civil Courts of Justice approved civil settlements totalling nearly £20 million for 16 injured children. Individual payments ranged from £2,770 to more than £11 million, depending on the severity of injuries. The damages were awarded against organisations responsible for the arena's security and operation, and against police forces involved in the response.
Updated
Common questions
When did the Manchester Arena bombing happen?
The Manchester Arena bombing happened at 22:31 on the 22nd of May 2017, after a concert by the American pop singer Ariana Grande. The bomb exploded in the City Room of the arena in Manchester, England.
Who carried out the Manchester Arena bombing?
Salman Ramadan Abedi, a 22-year-old British man of Libyan ancestry, carried out the Manchester Arena bombing. His younger brother Hashem Abedi was later convicted of murder for helping to source materials and make the explosives.
How many people died and were injured in the Manchester Arena bombing?
Twenty-two people were killed in the Manchester Arena bombing, along with the attacker. The injury count was revised repeatedly and reached 1,017 in December 2020, although a 2019 study said 239 of the injuries were physical.
What did the Manchester Arena Inquiry find about the bombing?
The first report of the Manchester Arena Inquiry, published on the 17th of June 2021, found that 'more should have been done' by police and private security guards to prevent the bombing. It identified a number of missed opportunities to alter the course of the night.
What was One Love Manchester after the Manchester Arena bombing?
One Love Manchester was a benefit concert held at Old Trafford Cricket Ground on the 4th of June 2017, announced by Ariana Grande after the bombing. It raised a total of £17 million for victims through the We Love Manchester emergency fund and related charity releases.
What sentence did Hashem Abedi receive for the Manchester Arena bombing?
Hashem Abedi was sentenced on the 20th of August 2020 to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 55 years. It is the longest minimum term ever imposed by a British court.
What is Martyn's Law and how does it relate to the Manchester Arena bombing?
Martyn's Law is a venue security law named after Martyn Hett, a 29-year-old victim of the Manchester Arena bombing. The Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Bill, known as Martyn's Law, was put before Parliament in September 2024.
All sources
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- 128Manchester Arena attack survivors win £45,000 damages in harassment caseJamie Grierson — Guardian — 8 November 2024
- 129NewsChildren hurt in Manchester Arena bomb share £20mLynette Horsburgh — 19 December 2025
- 130NewsManchester Arena attack memorial garden given go-ahead22 January 2021
- 131NewsManchester Arena bomb victim's mum hails 'beautiful' memorial5 January 2022
- 134JournalBritish Troops on British Streets: Defence's Counter-Terrorism Journey from 9/11 to Operation TempererJohn Gearson et al. — 25 March 2021
- 135JournalDoctors commended for their bravery in response to terrorist incidentsAnne Gulland — 30 June 2017
- 136JournalThe Curious Case of Theresa May and the Public That Did Not Rally: Gendered Reactions to Terrorist Attacks Can Cause Slumps Not BumpsMirya Holman et al. — 26 August 2021
- 137ReportThe Kerslake ReportMarch 2018
- 138ReportManchester Arena Inquiry Volume 1: Security for the ArenaJune 2021
- 139ReportManchester Arena Inquiry Volume 2-I: Emergency ResponseNovember 2022