Could we have avoided the Manchester bombing in 2017, which claimed the lives of 22 people and injured hundreds more?

Yes, if we believe a new public report on the terrorist attack on the sidelines of an Ariana Grande concert.

John Saunders, expert in charge of the investigation, says that "serious breaches" of security requirements and missed opportunities to question the perpetrator led to this tragedy.

“A number of opportunities were missed to change the course of what happened that night.

Police and security officials should have done more to prevent the attack, ”reads the report, relayed by the

Guardian

.

Salman Abedi, a Briton of Libyan origin, detonated the bomb contained in his backpack at 10:31 p.m., as the concert audience joined the outings.

In addition to the 22 dead, 800 people were injured, some disabled for life.

John Saunders claims that the terrorist could have detonated the bomb anyway if he had been arrested, but the number of victims would have been much lower.

Cascading security breaches

The investigation report recounts this moment when a member of the public alerts the security agents (hired by the company Showsec) on the suspicious behavior of Salman Abedi, 15 minutes before the detonation. Eight minutes before the attack, a Showsec agent attempted to report the terrorist to the control center, but he could not have reached them with his radio. CCTV would also have made it possible to arrest him earlier, but a blind spot in the orientation of the cameras has, according to the report, allowed him to escape the vigilance of the staff and to make a location without being worried.

John Saunders directly implicates SMG, the company which manages the Manchester Arena, for not having taken the appropriate measures "to improve the security of the Arena", but also part of the police.

The report concludes with the absence of uniformed British Transport Police officers to patrol the nearest underground station to and around the concert hall.

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