Manchester attack victims sue MI5, claiming 2017 tragedy was preventable

More than 250 people injured in the terrorist attack in Manchester in 2017 have filed a collective lawsuit against the British counterintelligence MI5, lawyers for the victims announced on Sunday. The attack at an Ariana Grande concert resulted in the death of 22 people.

The collective lawsuit is a consequence of a public investigation that concluded in March last year, showing the attack could have been prevented if MI5 had taken appropriate steps based on the intelligence information they received in the months preceding the attack. Unfortunately, two pieces of information about the attacker, Salman Abedi, were then assessed by British security services as not related to terrorism and ignored.

Following the publication of the investigation report, MI5 director Ken McCallum issued a rare public statement in which he apologised for the identified mistakes and emphasized that necessary changes had already been made.

On Sunday, three law firms—Hudgell Solicitors, Slater & Gordon, and Broudie Jackson Canter—representing more than 250 of the 1017 people injured in the attack announced that they had filed a lawsuit against MI5 on behalf of their clients. The document was submitted to a special tribunal dealing with compensation cases for individuals who believe they were victims of unlawful actions by public authorities using secret investigative techniques.

The attack took place on 22 May 2017 in Manchester and was the bloodiest act of terror in the United Kingdom since 2005. The perpetrator, Salman Abedi, born in Manchester but of Libyan Islamic radical roots, detonated an explosive device among the crowd leaving the Ariana Grande concert held at Manchester Arena.