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British police raid houses after bombing decried by PM as sickening attack on young

Tue May 23, 2017 | 4:28pm BST
By Michael Holden and David Milliken | MANCHESTER, ENGLAND
http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-security-manchester-idUKKBN18I2OV

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British Prime Minister Theresa May decried a suicide bomb attack that killed 22 people in a crowded concert hall as a sickening act targeting children and young people, and police raided houses in the city of Manchester looking for accomplices.

Islamic State, now being driven from territories in Syria and Iraq by Western-backed armed forces, claimed the attack as revenge against "Crusaders". But Western experts were skeptical, noting it had offered two accounts of the attack partly contradicting each other and the British police version.

In a statement made outside her Downing Street offices after a meeting with security and intelligence chiefs, May said police believed they knew the identity of the bomber.

"All acts of terrorism are cowardly," she said. "But this attack stands out for its appalling sickening cowardice, deliberately targeting innocent, defenceless children and young people who should have been enjoying one of the most memorable nights of their lives."

She said security services were working to see if a wider group was involved in the attack, which fell less than three weeks before a national election.

British police moved quickly, arresting a 23-year-old man in connection with Monday night's bombing, carried out as crowds began leaving a concert given by Ariana Grande, a U.S. singer who attracts a large number of young and teenage fans.

They also raided a property in the district of Fallowfield where they carried out a controlled explosion. Witnesses in the Whalley Range district said armed police had surrounded a newly-built apartment block on a usually quiet tree-lined street.

The northern English city remained on high alert, with additional armed police drafted in. London Mayor Sadiq Khan said more police had been ordered onto the streets of the British capital.

Monday's attack was the deadliest in Britain since four British Muslims killed 52 people in suicide bombings on London's transport system in 2005. But it will have reverberations far beyond British shores.

Attacks in cities including Paris, Nice, Brussels, St Petersburg, Berlin and London have shocked Europeans already anxious over security challenges from mass immigration and pockets of domestic Islamist radicalism. Islamic State has repeatedly called for attacks as retaliation for Western involvement in the conflicts in Syria and Iraq.

Witnesses related the horror of the Manchester blast, which unleashed a stampede just as the concert ended at what is Europe's largest indoor arena, full to a capacity of 21,000.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-security-manchester-idUKKBN18I2OV