People pay tributes at a vigil for the people who lost their
lives during the terror attack. EPA
UK raises terror threat level to highest
LONDON, May 24, 2017
Britain has raised its terror threat level to the highest level of "critical", meaning further attacks may be imminent, Prime Minister Theresa May has said.
The change in terror threat comes after investigators were unable to rule out whether the Manchester suicide bombing suspect Salman Abedi acted alone, the prime minister was quoted as saying by a BBC report.
Military personnel will now be deployed to protect key sites under the new threat level.
Earlier, British police identified the suicide bomber who killed 22 people in an attack in Manchester on Monday night as Salman Abedi, aged 22.
The police said they were trying to establish whether he had acted alone or with help from others, said a Reuters report. They however declined to give details about him.
US security sources, citing British intelligence officials, said he was born in Manchester in 1994 to parents of Libyan origin. He is believed to have travelled by train from London before the attack, they said.
"Our priority, along with the police counter-terrorism network and our security partners, is to continue to establish whether he was acting alone or working as part of a wider network," Manchester Police Chief Constable Ian Hopkins said.
The attacker set off his improvised bomb as crowds streamed out of the Manchester Arena after a pop concert by Ariana Grande, a US singer especially popular with teenage girls.
Islamic State, now being driven from territories in Syria and Iraq by Western-backed armed forces, claimed responsibility for what it called a revenge attack against "Crusaders".
