page_title: Manchester Arena bombing
section_title: Aftermath
hierarchical_section_title: Manchester Arena bombing / Attack / Aftermath
caption_attribution_description: English: British military personnel alongside armed police guarding the Palace of Westminster as part of Operation Temperer.
context_page_description: On 22 May 2017, an Islamist extremist suicide bomber detonated a shrapnel-laden homemade bomb as people were leaving the Manchester Arena following a concert by US singer Ariana Grande.
  Twenty-three people died, including the attacker, and more than 800 were wounded, some of them children. Several hundred more suffered psychological trauma. The bomber was Salman Ramadan Abedi, a 22-year-old local man of Libyan ancestry. After initial suspicions of a terrorist network, police later said they believed Abedi had largely acted alone but that others had been aware of his plans. In March 2020, the bomber's brother, Hashem Abedi, was found guilty of 22 counts of murder in relation to the attack.
  The incident was the deadliest terrorist attack and the first suicide bombing in the United Kingdom since the 7 July 2005 London bombings.
context_section_description: About three hours after the bombing, police conducted a controlled explosion on a suspicious item of clothing in Cathedral Gardens. This was later confirmed to have been abandoned clothing and not dangerous.
  Residents and taxi companies in Manchester offered free transport or accommodation via Twitter to those left stranded at the concert. Parents were separated from their children attending the concert in the aftermath of the explosion. A nearby hotel served as a shelter for people displaced by the bombing, with officials directing separated parents and children there. Manchester's Sikh temples (gurdwaras) along with local homeowners, hotels and venues offered shelter to survivors of the attack.
  Manchester Victoria railway station, which is partly underneath the arena, was evacuated and closed, and services were cancelled. The explosion caused structural damage to the station, which remained closed until the damage had been assessed and repaired, resulting in disruption to train and tram services. The station reopened to traffic eight days later, following the completion of police investigation work and repairs to the fabric of the building.
  After a COBRA meeting with Greater Manchester's Chief Constable, Ian Hopkins, on 23 May, Prime Minister Theresa May announced that the UK's terror threat level was raised to "critical", its highest level. The threat level remained critical until 27 May, when it was reduced to its previous level of severe. In the aftermath of the attack Operation Temperer was activated for the first time, allowing up to 5,000 soldiers to reinforce armed police in protecting parts of the country. Tours of the Houses of Parliament and the Changing of the Guard ceremony at Buckingham Palace were cancelled on 24 May, and troops were deployed to guard government buildings in London.
  On 23 May, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, via the Nashir Telegram channel, claimed the attack was carried out by "a soldier of the Khilafah". The message called the attack "an endeavor to terrorize the mushrikin, and in response to their transgressions against the lands of the Muslims." Abedi's sister said that he was motivated by revenge for Muslim children killed by American airstrikes in Syria.
  The Arena remained closed until September 2017, with scheduled concerts either cancelled or moved to other venues. It reopened on 9 September, with a benefit concert featuring Noel Gallagher and other acts associated with North West England.
  May announced an extra £13 million reimbursement from central government to Manchester's public services for most of the costs incurred by the attack in January 2018. Later that month, Chris Parker, a homeless man who stole from victims of the attack, was jailed for 4 years and three months.
caption: British military personnel alongside armed police as part of Operation Temperer in response to the raised threat level
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