Them omissions of the British secret serviceswhich did not properly handle the information they had in order to prevent it attack in the Manchester Arena, in 2017, where 22 people were killed, a long-awaited report by authorities released today shows.

“There was a significant, missed opportunity for us to act which could have prevented the attack,” co-investigator John Saunders said in his third and final report into the bombing, Britain’s worst since the 2005 suicide attacks in means of transport in London.

Twenty-two people – the youngest victim was just 8 years old – were killed in the blast and more than 200 injured when a man detonated an improvised explosive device inside the Manchester Arena as scores of parents arrived to pick up their children after her concert. Ariana Grande.

“It is not possible to come to any conclusion as to the chances (there were) that the attack could have been prevented,” Saunders added, however.

In his previous reports Saunders concluded that there were serious omissions and errors in the security of the site. It also found that one of those killed would likely have survived if mistakes had not been made by emergency services.

The bomb was detonated by Salman Abedi, 22, who was also killed in the blast. His younger brother, Hashem, was sentenced in 2020 to 55 years in prison for encouraging and helping him. A third, older brother, Ismail, was convicted in absentia in July after fleeing Britain and refusing to help the investigation. The Abedi brothers were born to Libyan parents who immigrated to Britain during the time Libya was ruled by Muammar Gaddafi.

Saunders said the domestic intelligence agency MI5 missed some opportunities to stop the attack and criticized the way it shared information with the police’s counter-terrorism agency.

The lawyer for eleven families who lost loved ones in the attack said the errors highlighted in the report were unacceptable. “As a result of these errors a real opportunity to prevent this attack was lost. For us, it’s a critical conclusion,” said Richard Scorer.

Saunders’ conclusions are similar to those of the Parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee which in 2018, in its own report, said that MI5 missed some opportunities to prevent the attack and did not learn the lessons it should have from previous terror attacks.