Manchester attack: UK threat level reduced from critical to severe – as it happened

Hundreds of tourists watched the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace after the ceremony resumed two days after being suspended in the wake of the Manchester attack.

The ceremony was cancelled on Wednesday to allow police officers, who would have been controlling road closures, to be redeployed.

A Ministry of Defence spokeswoman said a rehearsal for trooping the colour, also known as the Queen’s birthday parade, which was due to be held today had been moved to next Wednesday.

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26 May 201708.58 EDT

Steven Morris

Mohamed El Khayyat, who led Friday prayers at Didsbury mosque, said the community has nothing to hide.

“Our heart goes out to all who lost their lives, to their families, their friends, the Manchester community and the wider British public.”

He said the mosque had been overwhelmed by the scrutiny it had come under. He said the trustees had been to a local police station and made themselves available to officers to answer any questions.

Khayyat said the Libyan community in Manchester was “well-educated, kind, generous, always willing to help.”

The Manchester bomber Salman Abedi, who attended the mosque, did not represent the community or its values, he said.

26 May 201708.54 EDT

Henry McDonald

An ex-army officer who won the military cross in Afghanistan and now represents the Ulster Unionists in the Northern Ireland assembly, has emphasised the primacy of intelligence over army boots-on-the ground in protecting the public from further Isis-inspired attacks.

Retired captain Doug Beattie MC said he was unconcerned that soldiers have not been deployed in Northern Ireland as they have been on the streets of English cities since the Manchester attack.

Beattie pointed out that the military already gave support to the Police Service of Northern Ireland through its bomb disposal units when dealing with explosive devices placed around the region by republican terrorist groups.

On the primacy of intelligence to counter the new threat from suicide bombers and mass casualty attacks, Beattie said:

“It is also important to bear in mind that not all security measures are physical. In fact, many are intelligence driven with monitoring of individuals, items that can be used to create an explosive device and materials on the internet and wider circulation that would assist in making an explosive device.”

26 May 201708.50 EDT

Steven Morris

Several hundred men are at Friday prayers at the Didsbury mosque, in south Manchester. They were expecting almost 1,000, but many are said to have stayed away because of the attention the mosque has received since it emerged that Salman Abedi attended.

Ahead of prayers police community support officers patrolled outside and a mobile police video unit was parked at the gates, its camera pointed at the main door.

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Tillerson said the Manchester attack demonstrated the “challenge” of immigration.

Speaking in London at a joint press conference with Boris Johnson, Tillerson said: “Immigration is a significant challenge in how we confront acts of terrorism.” He added:

“We seem to have difficulty assimilating those people so that they feel part of our society and would never consider supporting acts of violence against their fellow citizens and their fellow neighbours.

“This mass migration of people ... is a problem for countries all over the world. It is one we have to learn better how to address.”

Speaking alongside him, Johnson put his own family forward as an example of the success of integration.

“The US and the UK are countries that in many ways are built on immigration,” the foreign secretary said. He added:

“My great grandfather was a Muslim. And he came to this country, indeed he came to Wimbledon in the early part of the last century. I went on to become the mayor of London and indeed foreign secretary. So integration is possible. It is what we should aspire to.”

• Police have arrested a man in Moss Side in connection with the Manchester attack and released details of all eight people being held in custody as raids continued. Greater Manchester police said they were questioning eight men, whose ages ranged from 18 to 38. A 34-year-old woman and 16-year-old boy who were also arrested have been released without charge.
• The manager of a St Helens pizza shop that was raided by police this morning has claimed that his friend Aimen Elwafi who rented a property to the bomber, Salman Abedi, is one of the eight people in custody after the Manchester Arena attack. Mohamed Elhudarey said his friend Elwafi, 38, who helped him run Lorenzo Pizza in St Helens, found curtain fabric cut into squares, a strip of metal, and the fire alarms disabled when he re-entered the flat in Blackley, north-west Manchester.
  
• Police have escorted two more men from a property in Moss Side where three others had been led away this morning. After three men were seen leaving with police earlier on Friday, the property was left without a police presence in the form of officers or marked vehicles. After the first police entry, one of the men still present welcomed the Guardian into the property.
• British police have resumed sharing information with their counterparts in the US after a brief suspension over a series of leaks by American officials to journalists providing details of the Manchester bomb investigation. The suspension lasted less than 24 hours. The US secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, said the US took responsibility for the leaks.
• The home secretary, Amber Rudd, says the terrorist threat level will remain at critical, and the public can expect to see troops at major events this weekend. The Metropolitan police said armoured police vehicles will be deployed at the FA Cup final at Wembley.
• Abedi had close connections with criminal gangs as well as known and suspected terrorists in Manchester. Abedi, 22, associated with a gang that has for years waged war with a rival grouping in south Manchester, the Guardian has learned after speaking to members of the local community.
• The UK’s foreign policy and approach to fighting terrorism is not working, Jeremy Corbyn has said. The Labour leader said there must be more money for law enforcement, as he suggested Britain’s intervention in wars abroad had fuelled the risk of terrorism at home.
• The broadcaster Katie Hopkins and LBC have agreed she will leave her job at the radio station with immediate effect. Earlier this week Hopkins called for a “final solution” following the Manchester attack.

The US secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, says the US takes full responsibility for the leak of details about the investigation into the Manchester attack, Reuters reports.

Speaking in London after meeting his UK counterpart, Boris Johnson, Tillerson said the “special relationship’” between the two countries would “certainly withstand these leaks”.

He added that “hearts are broken” in US after the Manchester attack.

At the Nato summit in Brussels on Thursday, Theresa May confronted Donald Trump over the leaks, saying shared intelligence “should be kept secure”.

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The home secretary, Amber Rudd, says the terrorist threat level will remain at critical, and the public can expect to see troops at major events this weekend. In a statement she said:

“I have just chaired Cobra to get an update on the atrocious incident on Monday night. Twenty two people have died and 66 people are still in hospital.

“Meanwhile the investigation continues, eight people are now in custody, it is a live operation and that will continue. In the meantime I would like to take the opportunity to thank the police for the really good work they are doing.

“JTAC have assessed the level of threat should remain at critical while the operation continues. The military are continuing to support the police under Operation Temperer- a 1,000 members of the military are assisting in that - and I want to thank them as well for the great work they are doing.

“Over this weekend normal events will take place. The police have been engaging with organisers of events to ensure they get all the support at those events that people want to have and they may see some additional military presence.

“But I hope they will take comfort from that and they will feel more secure. We must not let this terrible terrorist incident impact on our lives. Let’s carry on this weekend, this bank holiday weekend, with our families and friends.”

26 May 201707.22 EDT

Frances Perraudin

Mohammed El-Haduri, who runs the St Helens pizza shop that was raided by police on Friday, claimed his friend Aimen Elwafi panicked when he saw the news and realised he had rented a property to Salman Abedi.

El-Haduri claims Elwafi handed himself into the police. “He made the connection straight away. He was shocked and panicked when he saw the news,” El-Haduri said of his 38-year-old friend who is currently in custody.

He added: “I’ve known Aimen since 2005 and he’s a very educated person. He came
to this country and he couldn’t say yes or no in English, and in one year his English is perfect ... he went to college and did a masters and he’s a solicitor.”

26 May 201707.18 EDT

Jamie Grierson

Police have escorted two more men from a property in Moss Side where three others had been led away this morning.

After three men were seen leaving with police earlier on Friday, the property was left without a police presence in the form of officers or marked vehicles.

After the first police entry, one of the men still present welcomed the Guardian into the property. The other was sleeping under a rug in an empty ground floor room. Upstairs there were two bare bedrooms with limited furniture.

One of the tenants, who said he was from Kuwait, spoke limited English. He indicated that he did not know why the property had been searched but pointed to where officers had searched the attic.

After the Guardian left the premises, armed police returned and urged people to move away from the property to the end of the cul de sac. They drove the two men away in a van. A police guard was then placed on the front door of the house.