Police make fresh arrest over Manchester bombing

Police stand in front of a cordon in Rusholme, Manchester, Britain June 2, 2017. REUTERS/Andrew Yates

London // British police said on Saturday they had arrested a new suspect in the May 22 terrorist attack at a pop concert in Manchester, bringing to 11 the number of men in custody.

Authorities arrested a 24-year-old man last night in Rusholme, an inner-city area of Manchester.

“He was arrested on suspicion of offences contrary to the terrorism act,” police added.

Twenty-two people, including seven children, were killed in the attack at a concert by US singer Ariana Grande.

The new arrest follows the evacuation Friday afternoon of an area in Rusholme after police identified a car they said “may be significant to the investigation”.

Seventeen arrests have so far been made in the UK and six people have since been released without charge.

Bomber Salman Abedi’s father and brother are also in detention in Libya, where authorities say the two brothers were both part of the ISIL which claimed responsibility for the attack.

Ariana Grande returned to Manchester on Friday ahead of a charity concert to honour the victims of the attack.

The singer visited some of her injured fans still being treated at the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital.

“This means more to us than all the amazing things people have done,” Peter Mann, whose daughter Jaden was injured in the attack, told the BBC after Grande’s visit.

Proceeds from Sunday’s concert will go to a fund set up to help the victims’ families.

Tickets went on sale Thursday, selling out within six minutes, with website Ticketmaster reporting “incredible” demand.

Meanwhie, an open-air weekend “Rock am Ring” concert near Germany’s Nuerburgring race track resumed on Saturday after being suspended on Friday due to a possible terrorist threat.

“After intensive searches of the whole festival area, the suspicions have not hardened into an acute threat situation,” the organisers said on their Facebook page, adding that police had given a green light for the concert to go ahead.

The deputy police chief of nearby Koblenz, Christoph Semmelrogge, said no suspicious objects were found at the venue.

The Manchester bombing led to changes in the security planning for the German concert and the number of security officials was increased substantially.

Police temporarily stopped the concert on Friday as they suspected three people from the western state of Hesse were planning to set off an explosion. The three, who had backstage passes, were detained and subsequently released, police said.

*Agence France-Presse and Reuters