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

After Jeremy Corbyn resumed campaigning on Friday by saying the “war on terror is simply not working”, Theresa May accuses the Labour leader of saying that Monday night’s terror attack in Manchester was the UK’s own fault. “There can be no excuse for what happened” there, she tells journalists at the G7 summit.

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Corbyn was careful to say that terrorists were entirely to blame for their own actions. But, in his speech in Westminster on Friday morning, he added that governments must also examine the effectiveness of their policy decisions.

No rationale based on the actions of any government can remotely excuse, or even adequately explain, outrages like this week’s massacre.

But we must be brave enough to admit the war on terror is simply not working. We need a smarter way to reduce the threat from countries that nurture terrorists and generate terrorism.

May also defends herself against suggestions that she had left the UK vulnerable by under-funding the police. She says she has protected counter-terrorism police funding and has increased powers available to police.

Corbyn’s spokesman said later:

26 May 201712.31 EDT

Spike in hate crime in Manchester

Frances Perraudin

Greater Manchester police chief constable Ian Hopkins says 56 hate crimes were recorded on Wednesday, in the wake of the bombing. That figure was 28 on Monday.

In the response to the surge in hate crime he said: “Whilst we can’t directly link this to the events of Monday night, we are continuing to monitor the situation and support our communities.”

He added: “We will not tolerate hate crime in Greater Manchester”, and urged people to report incidents.

He described the aftermath of the attack as “an extremely challenging week”.

Hopkins said there had been enormous progress with the investigation but there was still a lot of work to do. Twelve locations have been searched, and activity will continue over the weekend.

Hopkins said additional officers, including a significant number of armed officers, would be at public events across Manchester over the weekend.

He said: “It’s important to remind people that the threat level does remain critical, and it is important that they remain vigilant.”

He says a number of items from the searches have been significant to the investigation, but would not say if items relating to bombs have been found.

The Greater Manchester mayor, Andy Burnham, tells Mancunian Muslims that the Manchester bomber “no more represents you than the man who killed my friend Jo Cox represents me”.

26 May 201711.59 EDT

Rowley: Army have taken over guarding of key locations

Haroon Siddique

Britain’s top counter-terrorism officer has said that the army have taken over guarding key locations usually guarded by police allowing 1,100 more officers to be deployed.

Assistant commissioner Mark Rowley said while police had made “significant arrests” it would take more time to close down gaps in the inquiry. He said the reason for the critical threat level was there remained a “degree of uncertainty” around the network.

He said:

We need to grow our confidence that we’ve got every component of the network and we have got as full an understanding as possible as to how the device was constructed and whether there is any more remaining risk.

Having made significant arrests and significant finds, there still remain important lines of inquiry for us to pursue. Of course, we have got to try and understand everything we can about the dead terrorist, his associates, the whole network and how they acquired and built the bomb that exploded on Monday night.

We have made enormous progress but there are still some really important lines of inquiry to follow through and it’s going to take a little more time to close down those gaps in our inquiry.

26 May 201711.50 EDT

Jamie Grierson

A lecturer who taught the Manchester Arena bomber five to six years ago has told the Guardian that college staff or the thenteenager’s peers reported him to police for expressing extremist views.

The teacher, who asked not to be named, said Salman Abedi was a “slow, uneducated and passive” boy on an IT and business course at Trafford College specifically aimed at students at an “exceptionally low level”.

The man, who no longer works at Trafford College, said he believes Abedi would have not been capable of plotting an attack of the magnitude seen at the Ariana Grande concert alone and may have been used by others. He said: “I tutor kids who are 11 years old and they’ve got better English and Maths than the kids who were on the course I used to teach which this lad was on.

“It’s typically people who are either behaviourally problematic, so disruptive and angry, or need a lot of support and special needs. People talk about the planning and the intelligence you need to plan an attack. This was not an intelligent person.”

Abedi was 16 to 17 years old when he was on the course. He was 22 when he detonated a bomb in a rucksack in an entrance to Manchester Arena, killing 22 people plus himself and injuring dozens more.

The lecturer said: “He was a quiet person, not on the angry side, he was on the quiet side. But it just feeds to this idea of him being used by other people. It’s a course for people who have got very weak English – and general – skills. Very weak.”

Several reports have emerged suggesting various acquaintances of Abedi’s – from his own family to friends to mosque leaders – reported him to authorities for extremist beliefs.

The lecturer said staff or peers at Trafford College reported Abedi to police when he was a student there. “I know people did report him for some of the comments made. It fed through to the police. It was staff or peers. It was reported.”

He added: “This is a very slow, uneducated and passive person.” The lecturer said he was “devastated, like everyone else” when he learned of the horrific attack on Monday night.

Mark Rowley, Scotland Yard’s counter-terrorism commander has provided more detail about how the lines of inquiry that are being pursued in the Manchester bombing investigation.

He said: “We are focusing on understanding [Salman] Abedi’s life; forensically examining a number of scenes, reviewing hours of CCTV from the night itself and the hours and before, financial work, communication, digital exhibits, the accounts from hundreds of witnesses and of course enquiries internationally.”

He added that over the weekend, there will be extra officers on duty, including hundreds of armed officers. “Extra firearms officers have been out on streets because we have backfilled some static guarding posts at key places with military personnel,” Rowley said. “Their presence at these sites will continue throughout the weekend.”

“My request to the public is simple: if this weekend you see something out of place, that causes you concern or raises your suspicions, tell us. If you have those suspicions now about someone, tell us. We will act on all information we are given and together we can defeat terrorism.”

Manchester is preparing for the Great City Games in Manchester this evening, with an increased police presence.

In the Evening Standard Olympic legend and former chairman of the British Olympic Association Sebastian Coe wrote that sport could play an unifying role in the wake of the attack.

I shall be in Manchester tonight to watch the CityGames and the athletes will know that their performances are much more than just a stepping stone to the world championships, personal bests or prize money. They will also instinctively know that they too will be a part of the grieving and, ultimately, healing process.

The last time I was in Manchester, we were celebrating the triumphant homecoming of our all-conquering Olympic and Paralympic teams fresh from Rio. In monsoon conditions, thousands of Mancunians took to the streets — many of them bagging prime spots hours earlier to cheer our heroes to the rafters as the floats passed through the city streets. Some of those in the British athletics team that day will be performing tonight in front of many who lorded them on that wet afternoon. This is now their chance through sport to stand united with the people of the city and be defiant in the face of evil. It won’t be the first or last time that sport steps up.

In Sheffield hundreds of balloons launched to the music of One Direction in memory of Kelly Brewster, who was from the city.

Brewster was described as “one-in-a-million” who “loved life and everything in it” by friends.