MI5 launches inquiry into Manchester attack intelligence failure

British Home Secretary Amber Rudd speaks during a vigil in Trafalgar Square in central London, March 23, 2017. (Photo by AFP)

Britain’s domestic counter-intelligence agency (MI5) has launched an inquiry into how it missed warnings from the public about the threat posed by the man behind the Manchester terrorist attack.  

“There is a lot of information coming out at the moment about what happened, how this occurred, what people might or might not have known,” Home Secretary Amber Rudd told the media on Monday.

She made the remarks in the wake of several arrests, which made authorities lower the terrorism threat level, citing progress in the investigation.

“It is right that MI5 take a look to find out what the facts are,” she said, adding, “We shouldn't rush to make any conclusions at this stage.”

Media reported that MI5 was alerted at least three times to the "extremist views" of Salman Abedi, a 22-year-old who grew up in Manchester in a family of immigrants from Libya.

Salman Abedi on the night he carried out the Manchester Arena terror attack (Photo via Greater Manchester Police)

They also reported that people who knew Abedi raised concerns years before he carried out the attack. The Daesh (ISIL) terrorist group took responsibility for the bombing. 

Rudd further warned that some members of the terror network, whose activities led to the deadly attack, were still potentially at large.

Abedi allegedly detonated a sophisticated device at a concert hall in Manchester last week. At least 22 people lost their lives and dozens more were wounded.

Fourteen people are now in custody in connection with last Monday’s bombing, the deadliest act of terror in Britain in over a decade.

Police officers stand on duty by cordoned-off residential property on Montcliffe Crescent, northwest England, as they continue their investigations in the wake of the Manchester Arena bomb attack, May 29, 2017. (Photo by AFP)

The British government has deployed thousands of troops across the country to guard key sites.

With security and police cuts having risen to the top of the political agenda, Britons will head to the polls in 10 days to elect a new government.