MANCHESTER: Salman Abedi, the suicide bomber who killed 22 people in an attack on a pop concert in Manchester, was a business student who dropped out of university.
Born to a devoutly Islamic Libyan family in Britain’s third biggest city, newspapers said he was known to the security services and the Financial Times said he had turned to radical Islam in recent years.
Abedi, 22, worshiped at a suburban mosque, where his father was a well-known face who sometimes performed the call to prayer.
“The perpetrator was Salman Ramadan Abedi, who was born and brought up in Britain,” May said, condemning his actions as “callous and cowardly“.
Media reports said Abedi’s parents fled Libya to escape the regime of former dictator Moamer Kadhafi.
Abedi’s family have lived in the Fallowfield area of south Manchester for at least 10 years, Reports said the suicide bomber was the second youngest of four children, including another son and one daughter. according to The Daily Telegraph newspaper.
Around 16,000 Libyans live in Britain and Manchester is home to the largest community, according to the BBC. It was a focus of celebrations when the Kadhafi regime fell in 2011.
Reports said the suicide bomber was the second youngest of four children, including another son and one daughter.
One member of Manchester’s Libyan community told The Guardian newspaper: “He was such a quiet boy, always very respectful towards me.
“His brother Ismael is outgoing, but Salman was very quiet. He is such an unlikely person to have done this.”
Abedi began studying business and management at Salford University in Manchester in 2014, a source told the Press Association news agency, but he dropped out after two years and did not complete his degree.
He did not live in university accommodation, had not been in any trouble at the university, was not on any radar for pastoral or social care and was not known to have participated in any university societies.
It is understood Abedi never met with the university’s resident imam.
Abedi used an improvised explosive device, apparently packed with metal, to massacre concertgoers and end his own life.
Citing CCTV footage recovered by detectives, The Times reported Abedi had placed the device in a suitcase which he set on the ground before it detonated.