Manchester Arena bomber Salman Abedi 'was banned from mosque after accusing Imam of "talking b*****ks" in anti-ISIS sermon'

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The Manchester Arena bomber was banned from a city mosque after accusing an Imam of "talking b*****ks" during an anti-ISIS sermon, it is claimed.

Salman Abedi, 22, walked into the arena and detonated an IED on Monday night, killing 22 people, including children as young as eight.

Victims were leaving an Ariana Grande concert when the university dropout blew himself to pieces with the device, packed with nuts and bolts.

Before the terror attack, Abedi had allegedly been reported to authorities at least five times over his extremist views, but they failed to stop him.

Now, it has been claimed that he was previously banned from a Manchester mosque after criticising the Imam during a sermon against the Islamic State.

The terrorist, whose parents are of Libyan origin, stood up before declaring: "You are talking b*****ks", according to local Akram Ramadan.

He then allegedly gave the Imam a "threatening stare".

Mr Ramadan, 49, part of the close-knit Libyan community in south Manchester, said the incident unfolded at Didsbury Mosque.

"There was a sermon about anti- Daesh (IS) and he stood up and started calling the Imam - 'You are talking b*****ks," he said.

"And he gave a good stare, a threatening stare into the Imam's eyes,

Mr Ramadan lived in the flat above Abedi's older brother, Ismail, who has since been arrested by police in Chorlton, Manchester.

Sheikh Mohammed Saeed had previously described how Abedi showed him "the face of hate" after he spoke against ISIS at the mosque.

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"He showed me the face of hate, Salman, after that sermon," he told The Times.

"He used to show me the face of hate. I could tell this person hates me. You understand, it's no surprise to me [that he was the attacker]."

Security services were repeatedly warned about Abedi over his extremist views before Monday's attack, sources told the Daily Telegraph.

However, despite the alleged warnings, they failed to stop him.

Two members of the public called a special anti-terrorist hotline to report the ISIS-linked killer’s horrific views, The Mirror reported.

One community worker said two people who knew Abedi at college made separate calls to the police begging them to take action.

He said: “All of the publicity is about Muslims not coming forward and this shows that they are coming forward and expressing their concerns.”

Both callers said they had been worried that “he was supporting terrorism” and had expressed the view “being a suicide bomber was OK".

The calls are thought to have been made around five years ago. It’s still unclear whether police acted on the tip-offs.

According to a spokesman for Libyan authorities, one of Abedi's final acts on the night of the bombing was to ring his mum.

Late on Tuesday, Abedi’s father Ramadan, 50, and younger brother Hashem, 20, were arrested by Libyan police in Tripoli.

It followed the earlier arrest of older sibling Ismail, 23, in a dramatic swoop by armed police near a Morrisons in Chorlton.

Before his detention, Ramadan had claimed his suicide bomber son was innocent, saying: "We don't believe in killing innocents. This is not us."

He had also rejected claims he was a member of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, but added that he supported the organisation, which is banned in the UK.

In a translated interview, shown on BBC, he said: "I condemn anyone who says I belong to Libyan Islamic Fighting Group.

"I commend them but I don't belong to any organisation."

While Abedi was born and raised in Manchester, his parents had arrived in the UK having fled the Gaddafi regime in Libya in the early 1990s.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd said earlier this week the suicide bomber likely did not act alone when he blew himself up at the end of an Ariana Grande concert.

She also confirmed he was known to the authorities.

"We do know that he was known up to a point to the intelligence services," she told Sky News.

"I am sure that we will get more information about him over the next few days and the next few weeks."

The French interior minister, meanwhile, said Abedi had "most likely" been in Syria - another claim his father dismissed, saying he had checked his son's passports.

Today, it emerged Abedi was in the German city of Duesseldorf - a hotbed of radical Islam - four days before the attack.

He also visited the banking metropolis of Frankfurt - home to a number of jihadists - in 2015, intelligence authorities have discovered.

German security sources said intelligence efforts have been redoubled to find if Abedi had accomplices in the country, received any explosives training or had been radicalised by radical preachers in the country.

It came as police raided a city centre flat in Manchester, which a nearby bar owner said they told him they believe Abedi had been in before he carried out the bombing.

Nearly two dozen people - including seven kids - were killed in the attack, while a further 119 were injured. Fifty nine of these were hospitalised.

Those killed include Saffie Rose Roussos, eight, Olivia Campbell, 15, and teenage sweethearts Chloe Rutherford, 17 and Liam Curry, 19.

This morning, the family of another victim, Eilidh MacLeod, 14, paid tribute to a "vivacious" teenager who was "full of fun".

They said in a statement via police: "Our family is devastated and words cannot express how we feel at losing our darling Eilidh.

"Eilidh was vivacious and full of fun. She loved all music, whether it was listening to Ariana or playing the bagpipes with her pipe band.

"As a family we would like to express our thanks and gratitude for the support and kind messages we have received at this difficult time."