The blunders of British intelligence agencies, which failed to properly process the information they had to prevent the Manchester Arena attack in 2017, are revealed in a long-awaited report from the authorities, released today. The attack killed 22 people. The youngest victim was only 8 years old.

“We had an important, missed opportunity to act that could have prevented the attack,” said co-investigator John Saunders in his third and final report on the bombing, the worst in the UK since the 2005 London vehicle suicide attacks.

In addition to those killed, more than 200 people were injured in the blast when a man detonated a homemade bomb at the Manchester Arena when many parents arrived to pick up their children after an Ariana Grande concert.

“It is impossible to reach any conclusion as to the chances (were) that the attack could have been prevented,” Saunders added, however. In his previous reports, Saunders concluded that there were serious omissions and errors in the site’s security. It also turned out that one of the dead victims would most likely have survived if not for the mistakes of the emergency services.

The bomb was detonated by Salman Abedi, 22, who also died in the explosion. His younger brother Hashem was sentenced in 2020 to 55 years in prison for encouraging and helping him. The third, older brother Ismail, was convicted in absentia in July after fleeing the UK and refusing to help the investigation.

The Abedi brothers had Libyan parents who immigrated to the UK at a time when Libya was ruled by Muammar Gaddafi. Saunders said domestic intelligence agency MI5 missed some opportunities to stop the attack and criticized the way information was exchanged with the anti-terrorism police agency.

The lawyer for the eleven families who lost loved ones in the attack said the errors noted in the report were unacceptable. “As a result of these mistakes, a real opportunity to prevent this attack was lost. For us, this is a critical finding,” said Richard Scorer.

Saunders’ findings are similar to those of the Parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee, which said in a 2018 report that MI5 missed some opportunities to prevent a terrorist attack and did not learn from previous attacks.

Source: RES-IPE