Fresh arrest in connection with Manchester bombing

A ninth person is being questioned by police after being arrested on suspicion of terrorism offences in connection with the Manchester bombing.

The 44-year-old was detained in the Rusholme area on Friday evening, bringing the total number arrested to 11, Greater Manchester Police said.

Salman Abedi, who was born in the UK to Libyan parents, has been identified as the suicide bomber who blew himself up in the attack which killed 22 people and injured more than 100, but police are working to establish whether he was working alone or in conjunction with a wider terrorist cell.

A group of plain clothes police reportedly swooped on a man on a bus, according to eyewitness accounts.

A woman told the Manchester Evening News: "Suddenly, six or seven plain-clothed police officers got on, and the man who was sat next to me stood up and told people to leave. Two were wearing bullet proof vests. They arrested someone at the back of the bus. They surrounded him and I didn’t see what he looked like."

Daryl Lawson, manager of the Spar store in Oxford Road, Manchester, said up to six frightened people rushed into his shop as armed police stormed the bus they were on..

He then saw a police van pull up at the back of the bus, and believes a male passenger was taken away in it.

The 29-year-old said: "Basically some other people from the bus came running in the shop absolutely terrified, they said a number of armed police were on the bus.

"So I just got them in the back of the shop. I stood and guarded the front."

The passengers "were too scared and panicked" to get a good look at the man, but told Mr Lawson he had been sitting at the back of the number 41 bus.

"I have just learned that they had been following the guy for a little while and he was on his way to town. We don't know what for."

Armed officers in conjunction with bomb disposal teams carried out raids at a house in the Fallowfield area of south Manchester in the hours after Monday evening's devastating atrocity.

A 16-year-old boy arrested in Withington and a 34-year-old woman arrested in Blackley for questioning over the attack have since been released without charge.

Nine men remain in custody for questioning. They are mostly Libyan men aged between 18 and 38.

Police say they have made "very significant finds" and believe they have captured a large part of the suspected terrorist network.

A statement from Greater Manchester Police said: "The (latest) arrest is connected to Monday's attack on the Manchester Arena, but this is a fast moving investigation and we are keeping an open mind at this stage."