MANCHESTER, England (Reuters) - Police scrambled to close down a network around the Manchester suicide bomber with arrests in Britain and Tripoli on Wednesday, as details about the investigation were leaked to U.S. media, infuriating authorities who fear a second attack is imminent.

British-born Salman Abedi, 22, who was known to security services, killed 22 people at a concert venue packed with children on Monday.

Authorities believe he had help in building the bomb, which photographs published by the New York Times showed was sophisticated and powerful, and that his accomplices could be ready to strike again.

Manchester police arrested five men and one woman on Wednesday, bringing the total held for questioning to seven, and searched multiple addresses in northern and central England.

Explosives were found at one site, the Independent reported, citing security service sources.

A source said British investigators were hunting for anyone who may have helped build the suicide bomb.

“I think it’s very clear that this is a network that we are investigating,” police chief Ian Hopkins said outside Manchester police headquarters.

“And as I’ve said, it continues at a pace. There’s extensive investigations going on and activity taking place across Greater Manchester as we speak.”

Abedi, who was born in Manchester in 1994 to Libyan parents, blew himself up on Monday night at the Manchester Arena indoor venue at the end of a concert by U.S. pop singer Ariana Grande attended by thousands of children and teenagers.

Police in Tripoli on Wednesday arrested Abedi’s younger brother and his father, who said he did not expect the attack.

“I spoke to [Salman Abedi] about five days ago ... there was nothing wrong, everything was normal,” Ramadan Abedi told Reuters, moments before he was arrested.

A spokesman for the local counter-terrorism force said his brother Hashem Abedi was arrested on suspicion of links with Islamic State and was suspected of planning to carry out an attack in the Libyan capital.

The first arrest made in Britain on Tuesday was reported by British and U.S. media to be Abedi’s older brother.

Earlier, interior minister Amber Rudd said the bomber had recently returned from Libya. Her French counterpart Gerard Collomb said he had links with Islamic State and had probably visited Syria as well.

U.S. LEAKS

Authorities in Britain have become increasingly angered by U.S. leaks from the investigation, including the bomber’s name on Tuesday and the photos of blood-stained fragments from the bomb on Wednesday.

British police chiefs said the breaches of trust between security service partners were undermining their efforts.

Rudd had earlier scolded U.S. officials for leaking details.

“The British police have been very clear that they want to control the flow of information in order to protect operational integrity, the element of surprise, so it is irritating if it gets released from other sources, and I have been very clear with our friends that should not happen again,” she said.

But, hours after the warning, the New York Times published the detailed photographs.

A government source told the Guardian newspaper, “Protests have been lodged at every relevant level between the British authorities and our U.S. counterparts.”

British Prime Minster Theresa May will meet U.S. President Donald Trump at a NATO summit in Brussels on Thursday, but officials said she would cut short the second leg of her trip to the G7 summit in Italy.

The Manchester bombing has raised concern across Europe.

Cities including Paris, Nice, Brussels, St. Petersburg, Berlin and London have suffered militant attacks in the last two years.

SOLDIERS ON THE STREETS

The 22 victims in Manchester included an eight-year-old girl, several teenage girls, a 28-year-old man and a Polish couple who had come to collect their daughters.

Britain’s official terror threat level was raised to “critical”, the highest level, late on Tuesday, meaning an attack was expected imminently.

But with just over two weeks to go until a national election, May’s Conservatives and political parties said they would resume campaigning in the coming days.

Messages and floral tributes left for the victims of the attack on Manchester Arena lie around the statue in St Ann's Square in central Manchester, May 24, 2017. REUTERS/Jon Super

The Manchester bombing was the deadliest attack in Britain since July 2005, when four British Muslim suicide bombers killed 52 people in coordinated attacks on London’s transport network.

Rudd said up to 3,800 soldiers could be deployed on Britain’s streets, taking on guard duties to free up police to focus on patrols and investigation. An initial deployment of 984 had been ordered, first in London and then elsewhere.

Soldiers were seen at the Houses of Parliament, May’s Downing Street residence and at the London police headquarters at New Scotland Yard.

The Changing of the Guard ceremony at Buckingham Palace, a draw for tourists, was canceled because it requires support from police officers, which authorities decided was not a good use of resources given the threat level.

A source close to the bombing investigation told Reuters that the focus was on whether Abedi had received help in putting together the bomb and on where it had been done.

The bomb used in the attack appeared to contain carefully packed shrapnel and have a powerful, high velocity charge, according to leaked photographs from the investigation published by the New York Times.

The BBC reported that security services thought the bomb was too sophisticated for Abedi to have built by himself.

Police arrested three people in South Manchester, one woman in North Manchester, a man in the nearby town of Wigan, and another man in the central English town of Nuneaton.

CANCELED TOUR

Ariana Grande’s representative said on Wednesday she was suspending her tour to assess the situation and to “pay our proper respects to those lost”. The U.S. singer had been scheduled to perform two shows at London’s O2 arena this week.

Chelsea soccer club said it had canceled a victory parade that had been set to take place on Sunday to celebrate its Premier League title.

Several high-profile sporting events are coming up in Britain, including the soccer FA Cup final at London’s Wembley Stadium and the English rugby club competition final at Twickenham on Saturday and the UEFA Champions League final at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium on June 3.

Britain also has a national election scheduled for June 8.

All campaigning was suspended after the attack, although major parties said they would resume some activities on Thursday and national-level campaigning on Friday.

The government said a minute’s silence would be held at all official buildings at 1000 GMT (6.00 a.m. ET) on Thursday.

Slideshow (19 Images)

Greater Manchester Police said they were now confident they knew the identity of all the people who lost their lives and had made contact with all the families. They said they would formally name the victims after forensic post-mortems, which would take four or five days.

The bombing also left 64 people wounded, of whom 20 were receiving critical care for highly traumatic injuries to major organs and to limbs, a health official said.

France, which has repeatedly been hit by devastating militant attacks since 2015, extended emergency powers.

(For a graphic showing where the blast hit, click tmsnrt.rs/2rbQAay)</s>The brother of Salman Abedi, the suspect accused of carrying out a bombing in Manchester, England, that killed 22 people, allegedly said he knew his brother was going to carry out an attack, but did not know where or when, according to a spokesman for Libya's counterterror forces.

Interested in Manchester? Add Manchester as an interest to stay up to date on the latest Manchester news, video, and analysis from ABC News. Add Interest

Abedi, 22, the suspected suicide bomber, died at the scene of Monday night's attack at an Ariana Grande concert.

Authorities found what was described to ABC News as a bomb-making workshop in Abedi's home in Manchester, with enough chemicals to build several additional bombs.

Libyan authorities had been following Hashem Abedi, the suspect's brother who was born 1997, for a month and a half because of suspected links to ISIS, said Ahmed Dagdoug, the spokesman for Libya's counterterror forces. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack.

The two brothers were close, and Dagdoug said that Salman placed a call to Hashem, as well as their mother, 30 minutes before carrying out the attack.

On Tuesday, that brother was detained in Libya. During interrogation, Hashem Abedi revealed that he knew his brother was going to carry out an attack, but he did not know where or when, Dagdoug said.

Dagdoug said Hashem Abedi also revealed that he knew exactly how the bomb was made, and that he believes that Salman created the device by himself. He said that he provided some assistance to his brother, but added no specific details as to what that was.

Dagdoug said a network was involved in planning the attack.

The brothers came to Libya on April 18 and Salman Abedi departed on May 17, Dagdoug said.

It's not clear at this time if Salman went to Syria, Dagdoug said.

Salman Abedi's father, Ramadan Abedi, was also arrested in Libya.

Ramadan Abedi was interviewed by Reuters from Libya while in detention, and he denied that his son was a follower of ISIS, who claimed responsibility for the attack on Tuesday.

"Salman doesn't belong to any organization," he told the news agency. "The family is a bit confused because Salman doesn't have this ideology, he doesn't hold these beliefs."

Dagdoug told ABC News that the two brothers do consider themselves to be members of ISIS and said that they had been studying ISIS videos online, including instructional videos that teach the viewer how to make a bomb.

Joe Giddens/PA via AP Photo

Another one of the suspect's brothers, 23-year-old Ismail Abedi, was arrested in Manchester, a security official confirmed to ABC News.

A total of eight men have been taken into custody in the U.K. in connection with the attack. A woman who was arrested earlier was released without charge, police said.

Under British law, a person can be taken into custody in a terrorism investigation and held up to 14 days without being charged.

Chief Constable Ian Hopkins of the Greater Manchester Police said on Wednesday, "This is clearly a network that we are investigating, and extensive activity is taking place across Greater Manchester as we speak."

U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May on Tuesday raised the country's threat level to critical -- the highest of the U.K.'s five threat levels -- indicating that another attack may be imminent.

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The U.K. Metropolitan Police said 1,000 additional armed officers have been freed up to carry out patrols across the U.K.

"The extra officers add to a wider policing plan which sees increased patrolling at crowded places, iconic sites and transport hubs as police and partners do everything they can to protect the public," the police said.

Witness Joseph Harries told ABC News' "Good Morning America" that "people were just trying to get out of the arena as fast as they possibly could after the blast. I was directly in front of the stage at the heart of the arena. I had exactly the same distance to get out of any of the doors."

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"I had my best friend with me, and I grabbed hold of her wrist and told her never let go of me," he said. "We just ran. We jumped over chairs, railings to get out of the doors. We had to force open doors that wouldn't open because people were trying to get to -- the entire capacity of the 20,000-person arena were trying to get out of one exit.

"It felt like an eternity," Harries added, but it "couldn't have been more than two, three minutes from in our seats to outside of the arena."

Officials said that 119 people went to hospitals after the bombing, 64 of them are being treated and 20 of those are in critical condition.

Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP

Saffie Rose Roussos, 8, is the youngest known person who died from the attack. She was separated from her mother and sister, who were among the wounded, police said.

Fifteen-year-old Olivia Campbell was also among those killed, Campbell's mother wrote on Facebook.

Runshaw College in Lancashire confirmed on its Facebook page that 18-year-old student Georgina Bethany Callander died in the attack.

Toby Melville/Reuters

Lisa Lees, a 43-year-old mother and grandmother, was confirmed to be among the dead by her daughter, Lauren Ashleigh Lees.

"My mum was an amazing lady and wife," her daughter said in a statement. "We will pull together as a family and help each other through the darkness."

Another victim was Nell Jones, who was in Year 9 at the Holmes Chapel Comprehensive School & Sixth Form College in Holmes Chapel, England.

"Nell’s family have been searching for her since the incident in the hope that they would find her being cared for in hospital. Unfortunately, the police have now confirmed that Nell died at the scene," the school headmaster, Denis Oliver, said in a statement. "We are all devastated by the loss and as a school community we must now come to terms with what has happened."

A sixth victim was identified as Martyn Hett, according to his employer at Rumpus PR.

“We are all distraught at the tragic loss of our much-loved, larger than life, colourful and charismatic colleague Martyn Hett," Rumpus PR Managing Director Paul Evans said in a statement. "Martyn was an upbeat and positive soul who saw the good, the joy, the fun in everything.

"At work, he was the consummate professional. A master of his subject -- he was a talented writer, creative thinker and social media expert," Evans added. "Martyn loved life and I hope his lasting legacy is that people -- in these dreadful times -- choose to live their lives with joy not hate, just like he did.”

Two more victims were identified as Chloe Rutherford, 17, and Liam Curry, 19. "On the night our daughter Chloe died and our son Liam died, their wings were ready by our hearts were not," the families said in a statement posted on the Greater Manchester Police Twitter account.

A school receptionist, Jane Tweddle, was also killed in the attack. "Jane was a well-loved member of staff and our thoughts are with her friends and family at this terrible time," Jane Bailey, principal of South Shore Academy, said in a statement. "We have received numerous messages of condolences from parents, students, community members and colleagues across Blackpool for which we are very grateful. All of them say the same things about our lovely Jane ... bubbly, kind, welcoming, funny, generous ... the list goes on."

And Allerton High School in Leeds confirmed that student Sorrell Leczkowski was killed, as well. "Sorrell was a delightful member of the school community," read a statement from the school. "She enjoyed her studies, had a lovely group of friends and was a real asset to Allerton High School."

Stephen Lock/i-Images / Polaris

On Tuesday, May said, "We struggle to comprehend the warped and twisted mind that sees a room packed with young children not as a scene to cherish but as an opportunity for carnage."

A moment of silence was observed Wednesday before Manchester United's Europa League final soccer game against Ajax Amsterdam. Manchester beat Amsterdam 2-0 to win the Europa League.</s>Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Service, Cressida Dick, said:

“This is an utterly appalling attack. My thoughts are with the people of Manchester as they try to come to terms with the horrific events that took place in their city last night.Our colleagues from Greater Manchester Police and their emergency services showed huge bravery as they ran towards the confusion and danger.

“We are providing every possible support through the counter terrorism network as investigators work tirelessly to understand what has happened.

“Here in the Capital we put extra police officers on duty as Londoners started their journeys into work. This will continue for as long as it is needed, and the mix of armed and unarmed officers are there to reassure.

“Looking ahead to the weekend - a normal busy and vibrant weekend in our city - we are working with all those planning events to make sure we are doing all we can.

“Terrorists seek to spread fear and undermine our way of life. We must work together to stop that from happening. If you have suspicions, tell us; if you see something that concerns you, report it. Together we can protect London.”</s>The Latest: Police arrest 23-year-old man in connection with apparent suicide bombing at an Ariana Grande concert. https://t.co/Dkc5IlhlDe

— The Associated Press (@AP) May 23, 2017</s>The Coshocton County Sheriff's Office said three men remain in custody in reference to an ongoing investigation into a missing man. On May 16, 2017 friends and family of 26-year-old Michael Hamm, of Coshocton, reported him missing after he failed to show up for his job.

Start the conversation, or Read more at Whiznews.com.</s>Manchester Police have arrested another three men in connection with the investigation into Monday night's bombing that killed 22 people after an Ariana Grande concert. That brings the total arrests to four after police on Tuesday brought in a 23-year-old man.

Start the conversation, or Read more at Fox News.</s>A Carbondale man is behind bars in connection to an arson investigation.

Officers with the Carbondale Police Department responded to an apartment building in the 100 block of North Gum Street around 11:42 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 20.

Fire crews responded and discovered an active fire inside an unoccupied apartment at the complex.

The fire was contained to that apartment.

There were no reports of any injuries.

 

During the course of the investigation, police identified and located a suspect nearby. Arius Williams, 23, of Carbondale, was arrested in connection with the incident.

Williams is charged with Aggravated Arson and Damage to Property. He was later incarcerated in the Jackson County Jail.

His address is listed as 100 N. Gum Street.

The investigation into the incident remains ongoing.

Carbondale police say this arson is not connected to a suspicious fire set at Ashley Furniture earlier in the night.</s>Manchester Police have arrested another three men in connection with the investigation into Monday night's bombing that killed 22 people after an Ariana Grande concert. That brings the total arrests to four after police on Tuesday brought in a 23-year-old man. The U.K. late Tuesday raised its threat level to "critical" from "severe" after investigations revealed that the suicide bomber Salman Abedi may not have acted alone.</s>Nutley: Police blotter, May 23 Nutley police blotter items reported through May 23, 2017. Check out this story on northjersey.com: https://njersy.co/2rf0U1G On May 13, officers stopped a vehicle on Washington Avenue which resulted in the arrest of a 19-year-old South Hackensack man, police said.

Start the conversation, or Read more at NorthJersey.com.</s>Police say a West Milwaukee man died after he was taken into custody by officers who used stun guns during the arrest.
As part of an ongoing investigation, British police arrest six people in connection with Monday's deadly explosion, including a 23-year-old man who was taken into custody Tuesday.