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Warning
of
"imminent"
attack,
Britain
raises
threat
level
By JILL
LAWLESS,
ROB
HARRIS
and
SYLVIA
HUI
ap.org
MANCHESTER,
England
- As
officials
hunted
for
accomplices
of a
suicide
bomber
and
Britain's
prime
minister
warned
another
attack
could be
"imminent,"
thousands
of
people
poured
into the
streets
of
Manchester
in a
defiant
vigil
Tuesday
for
victims
of a
blast at
a pop
concert
- the
latest
apparent
target
of
Islamic
extremists
seeking
to
rattle
life in
the
West.
The
attack
left at
least 22
dead,
including
an
8-year-old
girl,
shattering
the
revelry
at a
show by
American
singer
Ariana
Grande,
where
strains
of
electric
pop and
the
sways of
innocent
young
fans
quickly
gave way
to an
explosion,
a flood
of
screams
and a
stampede
of
panicked
concert-goers,
many
clutching
pink
balloons
and
wearing
the
kitten-ear
headbands
popularized
by
Grande.
Touching
on that
disconnect,
British
Prime
Minister
Theresa
May
said:
"We
struggle
to
comprehend
the
warped
and
twisted
mind
that
sees a
room
packed
with
young
children
not as a
scene to
cherish
but as
an
opportunity
for
carnage."
May said
Britain's
terror
threat
level
had been
raised
to
critical
-
meaning
another
attack
may be
imminent.
The
status
means
armed
soldiers
could be
deployed
instead
of
police
at
public
events
including
sports
matches.
The
threat
level
had been
at the
second-highest
rung of
"severe"
for
several
years.
The
Islamic
State
group
claimed
responsibility
for the
blood
bath
Monday,
though a
top
American
intelligence
official
said the
assertion
could
not be
verified.
Manchester
Police
Chief
Ian
Hopkins
identified
the
bomber
as
22-year-old
Salman
Abedi,
who
authorities
said
died in
the
attack.
Police
raided
two
sites in
the
northern
English
city,
setting
off a
controlled
explosion
in one,
and
arresting
a
23-year-old
man in a
third
location.
May said
Abedi
was born
and
raised
in
Britain
and a
European
security
official
said he
was of
Libyan
descent.
The
official
spoke on
condition
of
anonymity
because
he was
not
authorized
to
comment
on
ongoing
investigations.
At least
20
heavily
armed,
helmeted
police
surrounded
a modest
red
brick
house
listed
as
Abedi's
address
in a
mixed
Manchester
suburb
at
midday
on
Tuesday
and
blasted
down the
door.
"It was
so
quick.
These
cars
just
pulled
up and
all
these
police
with
guns,
dogs,
jumped
out of
the car
and said
to us:
'Get in
the
house
now,'"
said
Simon
Turner,
46, who
lives
nearby.
Later,
forensic
officers
in white
coveralls
were
seen
going in
and out
of the
property.
Details
on Abedi
were
slow to
trickle
out. He
was
described
by
neighbors
as a
tall,
thin
young
man who
often
wore
traditional
Islamic
dress,
but few
said
they
knew him
well.
Alan
Kinsey,
52, who
lives
across
the
street,
said his
neighbor
would
often
get
picked
up by
another
young
man in a
Toyota
and
often
returned
late at
night.
"I
thought
he
worked
in a
takeaway
or
something"
because
of his
late
hours,
Kinsey
said.
Police
also
searched
an
apartment
in a
nearby
area
that
British
media
reported
belonged
to
Abedi's
brother,
Ismail.
Late
Tuesday,
thousands
of
people,
some
holding
up signs
proclaiming
"I Love
MCR" -
an
abbreviation
for
Manchester
- held a
moment
of
silence
at a
vigil
for the
victims.
Lord
Mayor
Eddy
Newman
and the
city's
police
chief
were
among
the
speakers
in front
of City
Hall in
Albert
Square,
where a
banner
with a
website
for a
Muslim
group
said
"Love
for all,
Hatred
for
None."
May
called
raising
the
country's
terror
threat
level
and
deploying
soldiers
to
patrol
key
sites a
"proportionate
and
sensible
response"
to the
suicide
bombing.
There
are two
major
sports
events
in
London
on
Saturday,
with
Wembley
Stadium
hosting
soccer's
FA Cup
final,
which
Prince
William
is due
to
attend,
and
Twickenham
hosting
rugby's
Premiership
final.
Monday's
bombing
made
Manchester
Arena,
one of
the
largest
indoor
concert
venues
in
Europe,
the
latest
apparent
target
of
Islamic
extremists
striking
at the
heart of
Western
culture,
an
ideology
baffling
to the
panicked
young
faces
emerging
from the
concert.
Among
those
confirmed
killed
was
Georgina
Callander,
whose
death
was
reported
by her
former
school,
which
posted a
photo of
her in
her
school
uniform
on its
website
and
described
her as a
"lovely"
and
"very
popular"
young
woman.
Also
killed
was
8-year-old
Saffie
Roussos,
who a
teacher
called
"simply
a
beautiful
little
girl in
every
aspect
of the
word"
who was
warm,
kind,
"and
unassuming,
with a
creative
flair."
The
little
girl's
mother
and
sister
were
among
the 59
wounded,
which
included
at least
12
children
under
the age
of 16.
Grande,
who was
not
injured
in the
blast,
tweeted:
"broken.
from the
bottom
of my
heart, i
am so so
sorry. i
don't
have
words."
The
bombing
took
place
after
Grande
closed
the show
with
"Dangerous
Woman"
and left
the
stage
and the
audience
streamed
toward
the
city's
main
train
station.
It
scattered
bolts
and
other
metal
scraps,
apparently
intended
to
maximize
the
bloodshed.
People
tumbled
over
guardrails
and one
another
clawing
toward
an
escape.
"There
was this
massive
bang.
And then
everyone
just
went
really
quiet.
And
that's
when the
screaming
started,"
said
25-year-old
Ryan
Molloy.
"As we
came
outside
to
Victoria
Station,
there
were
just
people
all over
the
floor
covered
in
blood."
The
attack
sparked
a
nightlong
search
for
loved-ones
-
parents
for the
children
they had
accompanied
or had
been
waiting
to pick
up, and
friends
for each
other
after
groups
were
scattered
by the
blast.
Twitter
and
Facebook
lit up
with
heartbreaking
appeals
for the
missing.
"I've
called
the
hospitals.
I've
called
all the
places,
the
hotels
where
people
said
that
children
have
been
taken
and I've
called
the
police,"
Charlotte
Campbell
tearfully
told ITV
television's
Good
Morning
Britain
breakfast
show.
Campbell's
15-year-old
daughter,
Olivia,
had
attended
the show
with a
friend
who was
wounded
and
being
treated
in a
hospital.
"She's
not
turned
up,"
Campbell
said of
her
daughter.
"We
can't
get
through
to her."
Hayley
Lunt,
who
brought
her
10-year-old
daughter
Abigail
to the
show,
her very
first
concert,
said
they ran
as fast
as they
could
once the
explosions
rang
out.
"What
should
have
been a
superb
evening,"
Lunt
said,
"is now
just
horrible."
Some
concert-goers
said
security
had been
haphazard
before
the
show,
with
some
people
being
searched
and
others
not.
However,
authorities
would
not say
whether
the
bomber
blew
himself
up
inside
or
outside
the
arena,
so it
wasn't
clear if
rigorous
bag
screening
or
additional
security
would
have
helped
prevent
the
deaths
and
injuries.
The
venue
tweeted
on
Monday
night
that it
happened
"outside
the
venue in
a public
space."
Around
the
United
Kingdom
and
across
Europe,
the
attack
brought
fear and
mourning.
At
Buckingham
Palace,
Queen
Elizabeth
II
marked a
moment
of
silence
alongside
her
husband
Prince
Philip
as well
as
Prince
Charles
and his
wife
Camilla.
In Rome,
the
lights
of the
Colosseum
and
Trevi
Fountain
were
darkened.
U.S.
President
Donald
Trump,
on a
visit to
the West
Bank
city of
Bethlehem,
called
the
perpetrators
"evil
losers"
and said
"this
wicked
ideology
must be
obliterated."
Manchester,
160
miles
(260
kilometers)
northwest
of
London,
is one
of
Britain's
largest
cities.
The
attack
was the
deadliest
in
Britain
since
four
suicide
bombers
killed
52
London
commuters
on
subway
trains
and a
bus in
2005.
Islamic
State's
claim of
responsibility
echoed
others
the
group
has made
for
attacks
in the
West but
with
vague
details
that
left
open the
possibility
it was
an
opportunistic
attempt
at
propaganda.
Manchester
itself
has seen
terror
before,
but not
this
deadly.
The city
was hit
by a
huge
Irish
Republican
Army
bomb in
1996
that
leveled
a swath
of the
city
center.
More
than 200
people
were
injured,
although
no one
was
killed.
The
bombing
also
elicited
painful
memories
of the
2015
terror
attacks
in
Paris,
where
most of
the 130
killed
were at
the
Bataclan
concert
hall.
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