MI5 missed 'significant opportunity' to take action which might have prevented Manchester Arena bombing, inquiry finds

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

There was 'a significant missed opportunity to take action' on the part of MI5 that might have prevented the murders of 22 people in the Manchester Arena bombing, the third and final report of the public inquiry into the atrocity has found.

One of two key pieces of intelligence about suicide bomber Salman Abedi - both of which weren't passed on to police by MI5 - 'gave rise to the real possibility of obtaining information that might have led to actions which prevented the attack', revealed the report today (Thursday, March 2).

Had investigations taken place, Abedi could have been stopped at Manchester Airport on his return to the UK from Libya just days before the bombing, or been followed to where the bomb was being kept. READ MORE: Third and final report of Manchester Arena bomb inquiry published - latest updates But Sir John Saunders, the inquiry's chairman, said he found it wasn't possible to reach a finding 'on the balance of probabilities or to any other evidential standard' as to whether the attack 'would have been prevented' had that action been taken.

He said: "However, there was a realistic possibility that actionable intelligence could have been obtained which might have led to actions preventing the attack." The leaders of a mosque attended by Salman Abedi were guilty of 'wilful blindness' to highly charged political debate about the conflict raging in Libya before the atrocity, the inquiry has also found.