'I wasn't shocked' Salman Abedi classmate says 'slow' bomber may have been 'manipulated'
A FORMER classmate of suicide bomber Salman Abedi admitted he “wasn’t shocked” to find out that he had carried out Monday’s terror attack.
He questioned the 22-year-old attacker’s intelligence and doubted his ability to carry out the Manchester terror attack, which killed 22 people and injured 119, alone.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s World at One, the unnamed caller, who attended Burnage Academy for Boys with Abedi, said his former classmate “fits the profile for a suicide bomber”.
He said: “He didn’t come across as an intelligent person, he almost seemed like he was in his own world.
“He didn’t have an idea of what was going on. Very slow to answer questions, wouldn’t answer any questions from the teacher.”
Salman Abedi "didn’t come across as an intelligent person", according to a former classmate
He didn’t come across as an intelligent person, he almost seemed like he was in his own world
He agreed “100 per cent” with the suggestion that the bomber may have been “manipulated by people more clever than he was”.
“I can’t even imagine the idea that he would be able to go through with such a complicated procedure,” he said. “He must have had help.”
But reflecting on his school days, he admitted it was easy to see how Abedi could have become a suicide bomber.
He said: “I wasn’t shocked – that’s not to say that I could predict or I could have expected that he would do such a thing but considering the type of demographic, he fits the profile for a suicide bomber.”
The comments come after a mosque chairman said he had thrown out the bomber from his mosque in the months leading up to the attack.
Abdullah Mushin Norris said he was angry with Abedi for staying in the mosque when he should not have been there.
He told Sky News: “I saw him staying over in the mosque and I told him that he had to leave. I was very annoyed with him. He said don't treat me like a child.
“That was my last confrontation with him. After that, if he came and prayed, I didn’t see him.
“I don’t want anyone staying in the mosque after we have prayed because I don’t know what conversation they are having.”