An extremist ‘Petri dish brimming with germs’: How Manchester Arena bomber Salman Abedi was radicalised

Terrorist had extremist parents who took him to fight in Libyan civil war, as well as Isis-supporting friends

The life of the Manchester Arena bomber was an extremist “Petri dish absolutely brimming with germs”, the inquiry into the terror attack has concluded.

A damning 226-page report detailed how Isis-supporting Salman Abedi was exposed to “malign presences” through his family and friendship group, including being taken to Libya to fight in the country’s civil war.

Aged just 22, Abedi launched the deadliest terror attack to strike the UK since the 2005 London bombings, detonating a powerful homemade suicide bomb among crowds of young fans leaving an Ariana Grande concert.