Police: Suspects in Manchester bombing freed without charge
LONDON — All the suspects arrested over last month’s Manchester concert bombing have been released without charge, British police said Sunday, acknowledging that detectives are still not sure whether the attacker had accomplices.
Salman Abedi, a Briton of Libyan heritage, detonated a knapsack bomb as crowds were leaving an Ariana Grande concert on May 22, killing 22 people and himself.
Shortly after the attack, police said they had rounded up members of Abedi’s network. But Greater Manchester Police said Sunday that all 22 people arrested on suspicion of terrorism offences have now been released without charge.
Russ Jackson, head of counterterrorism policing for northwest England, said police believe Abedi assembled the bomb himself, but it’s unclear “whether he acted alone in obtaining the materials for the device … and whether others knew or were complicit in the storage of materials knowing what was being planned.”