Manchester Arena Attack Survivors Sue MI5: 250+ Victims Seek Justice

A group of more than 250 survivors and relatives of the 2017 Manchester Arena suicide bombing are suing the British security service MI5. Three law firms representing the victims announced this.

During the attack, the perpetrator set off a homemade bomb in the foyer of the arena, where an Ariana Grande concert had just taken place. Hundreds of people were on their way to the exit at the time.

The attack killed 22 people and injured more than a hundred people. Many children were among the victims. The youngest fatality was an eight-year-old girl.

The perpetrator, 22-year-old Muslim extremist Salman Abedi, appeared to have been in the picture of MI5 before the attack. But the agency did not act quickly enough after important information came in about Abedi, an investigation found last year. In addition, crucial information was not shared with the anti-terrorism police due to a communication problem.

If that had happened, there would have been a real chance that the attack would have been prevented, was the conclusion of the investigation into the bomb attack.

Abedi’s return from Libya, four days before the attack, would have set off alarm bells. MI5 could also have possibly found the home-made bomb, which was stored in a car in Manchester.

After the report was published, the director of MI5 publicly apologized for his agency’s failure to prevent the attack. The relatives of the victims call the conclusions of the investigative committee unacceptable.

“Salman Abedi should not have been able to go to the arena that night. There were too many missed opportunities,” said one of the relatives.

Now the relatives and survivors have united and are suing MI5 as a group. This is the first known time in history that MI5 has been charged with failing to prevent a domestic terrorist attack.