THE Manchester Arena terrorist bombing might have been prevented if MI5 had acted on key intelligence received in the months before the attack, an inquiry found today.

Two pieces of information about suicide bomber Salman Abedi were assessed by the security service at the time as not relating to terrorism.

But inquiry chairman Sir John Saunders, having heard from MI5 witnesses at the hearings into the May 2017 attack that killed 22 people and injured hundreds, said that he considered that did not present an “accurate picture.”