Salman Abedi: Alleged Manchester bomber's family will be 'very angry' about suicide attack

'I just don’t see that guy doing it but obviously he did do it. It’s hard to believe something this crazy would come from him.'

Salman Abedi blew himself up at the Manchester Arena

The family of Manchester bomber Salman Abedi, will be “very angry” about his suicide attack, friends of the family have told The Independent.

The 22-year-old blew himself up while standing among the crowds leaving an Ariana Grande concert at the Manchester Arena, killing 22 and injuring 64.

A friend of Abedi's family told The Independent the the suspected suicide bomber had recently spent much of his time in Libya.

“He’s been very isolated”, said Mohamed, who attended the Didsbury Central Mosque with the family, before Abedi's father decided to move back to the north African country with most of his family. Only Salman and his older brother, Ismail, remained in Manchester.

“He was always one of the quiet ones and kept himself to himself. No one really knew him."

Mohamed, who also encountered the family through his role as president of the Manchester Libyan Society, added that Abedi "had a separate group of friends that were outside the Libyan community and who no one knew."

However, the brothers reportedly travelled back and forth to Libya frequently, with Salman spending much of his time there. Intelligence agencies are said to be investigating whether this was where he was recruited by terrorist groups.

“Whenever I saw him at the mosque he always said he’d just come back from Libya," Mohamed said. "When I heard the news I was surprised he was even here because his family lives in Libya and only his brother lives here."

He added that he was "still in shock" to learn that Abedi was behind the attack.

"The two things don’t fit together," he said. "I just don’t see that guy doing it but obviously he did do it. It’s hard to believe something this crazy would come from him.

“My best guess is that Salman was radicalised while he was living in Libya, not while he was here. There are groups like Isis operating out there so it’s more likely it happened there.“

Abedi's family would be "horrified" by what Salman had done, he said.

“His family will be boiling. They will be very angry,” he said. “I know they don’t approve of this. No human being would approve of this."

He added that Abedi's brother Ismael would be particularly angry about the attack. Ismael was detained by police outside a supermarket in Chorlton, south Manchester, earlier this week.

"His brother wouldn’t approve of this," Mohamed said. "He has lived a normal life, he’s been applying for jobs recently, he got married last year and went on honeymoon to Bali."

Other members of the community were equally shocked and angered by the attack.

Halima Khan, who practices at Disbury Central Mosque, told The Independent: “I am absolutely shocked. Absolutely shocked. And I know my mosque does not stand for those kind of activities.

“If it's known by anybody, we will be the first person to fetch them out and hand them to the authorities. [Any concerns] would absolutely be reported. I would be the first online to do it.

“Our heart goes to those who lost their lives. If there is anything we can do we will bend over backwards to support those families because this is our community.”

“Islam is a religion of peace. You're not allowed to take the life of an ant, let alone a human being, because if you do then it's hellfire for you.“

The mosque has a large Libyan community and two of its three imams are Libyan. Leaders said many of its members came to the UK to flee violence and persecution under Muammar Gaddafi, but a number have since moved back.

Mosque trustees said Salman was completely unknown to them.

One, Fawzi Haffar, said: “I've asked our employees and nobody has seen him or knows him”.

Ismail, however, is understood to have undertaken voluntary work at Didsbury in recent months, helping out at the mosque’s Koran school.