Manchester bomber Salman Abedi ‘killed himself near doors’ in terror attack that killed 22 after key intelligence missed
MANCHESTER bomber Salman Abedi killed himself near the entrance doors in a terror attack that left 22 dead, an inquest concluded.
The terrorist slaughtered innocent children and adults and left hundreds of others injured at an Ariana Grande concert in 2017.
Abedi also died in the horrific attack, while his ISIS fanatic brother Hashem was later jailed for life for his "integral role" in the atrocity.
An inquest today concluded the jihadi died from suicide, with his cause of death given as blast injuries.
Sir John Saunders, chairman of the public inquiry into the terror attack, was legally obliged to hold an inquest as Abedi had a sudden and violent death.
He said: "The deceased died near to the entrance doors to the Manchester Arena, when he detonated an explosive device that he had made with his brother and carried into the City Room in a backpack as part of a planned terror attack.
"In detonating the device the deceased murdered 22 innocent victims and injured many others."
The ruling comes just months after Sir John's damning report found Abedi was free to kill kill 22 people after MI5 let him slip through the net.
Spooks missed a "significant" opportunity to act over a key piece of intelligence that could have prevented the bombing, it said.
The report found the blunder was partly down to a failure by a security service officer to act swiftly enough.
The document also described Abedi as like "a Petri dish brimming with germs" after his parents fled to Libya in 2016.
This meant his radicalisation was driven by "noxious absences and malign presences" that allowed him to spiral further into Islamist extremism.
The report also found Abedi should have been put on the anti-terror Prevent programme in 2015 and 2016.
The homegrown terrorist was also flagged to MI5 on other occasions amid fears he was mixing with terror suspects.
As a result, Abedi was instead able to carry out the deadliest terror attack in Britain since 7/7 undetected.
Haunting CCTV caught him skulking around the arena at a Take That gig on a practice run.
Abedi was also caught in chilling CCTV images with a rucksack packed with thousands of nuts just 19 seconds before the deadly blast.
He had waited for around an hour in the Manchester Arena foyer before parents and children left the gig at 10.30pm.
One minute later, he detonated the bomb as 359 people stood in the City Room - with 19 declared dead at the scene.
The youngest victim, Saffie-Rose Roussos, eight, suffered more than 70 external injuries, with 17 metal nuts in her body, and died from blood loss due to multiple injuries.
Among debris found after the blast were 1,675 nyloc nuts, 156 flanged nuts, 663 plain nuts and 11 fragments from Abedi and his victims.
There were also screws recovered by investigators but they were so damaged they couldn't be counted.
Abedi's body was later found in four parts and he had to be identified by his DNA and fingerprints.
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His brother was was convicted of 22 counts of murder, one count of attempted murder encompassing the injured survivors, and conspiring with his brother to cause explosions.