Your trusted source

The Manchester bomber is believed to have planned the attack for at least a year and bought nails and screws for the atrocity in two trips to DIY stores in the city, The Times has learnt.

The sourece writes that Salman Abedi, 22, opened a bank account about 12 months ago that lay dormant until he used it to buy shrapnel for the bomb that killed 22 people and injured scores more at Manchester Arena on Monday night.

In another effort to avoid suspicion he is believed to have made at least two separate trips to buy materials at B&Q and Screwfix in the Manchester area shortly before leaving for Libya in mid-April, according to sources.

The sophisticated planning behind the bombing was underlined by details about Abedi’s efforts to evade the authorities. Five days before the attack Abedi, a British citizen with Libyan parents, had returned from Tripoli. The Times understands that he stockpiled the materials for the bomb before his trip. He travelled back to Manchester on Wednesday last week via Istanbul and Dusseldorf. CCTV footage is being examined to check if he met anyone.

Libyan authorities said his mother, Samia Tabbal, told investigators that Salman called his younger brother, Hashem, before the attack. He asked him to pass the phone to his mother before telling her goodbye and asking her to forgive him, it was claimed. Abedi’s younger brother and his father, Ramadan, are under arrest in Tripoli.
Abedi rented a flat for up to a week near Piccadilly station, in central Manchester, where it is believed that the bomb was assembled, rather than at his home in the south of the city.