BBC Radio 5 live

"One doesn’t associate such an act with Manchester," says Mohammed Abdul Malek, acting imam at the Muslim Youth Foundation mosque.

"You can't be more innocent than those young people who went to hear music and enjoy themselves," he says, adding: "My children could be one of those victims."

Presenter Nicky Campbell says he had been shocked to hear from two Muslim men who alleged that the attack "was done by the government".

The imam says he has heard such claims about terrorist attacks "on many occasions".

He argues that "we've got to balance freedom of speech, the rights of these people to express these thoughts" and claims it comes from politicians in many parts of the world, including his former home of Libya.

Of the suspect, he says: "This guy was born in this country, he has been through the educational system. How can he do this to people who could have been his colleagues?"

Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

Former Labour minister Hazel Blears, who helped launch the anti-radicalisation Prevent initiative in the wake of the 7/7 bombings in 2005, said there was an urgent need to strengthen and broaden the scheme.

She told the BBC the “evil” ideology that underpinned violent extremism needed to be “tackled head on” by asking tough questions about what it meant to be a Muslim in a 21st Century Western democracy and how young Muslims’ “sense of identity” was being shaped and, in a minority cases, warped.

“What we have really failed to do… is to get to this ideology. That ideology needs to be taken apart, deconstructed and challenged at every level. I don’t think we are doing enough in that space,” she told Radio 4’s Today.

BBC Radio 5 live

Salman Abedi, 22, has been named by police as the suspected suicide bomber. He was born in Manchester to a family believed to be of Libyan origin.

"The fear is that he has received bomb-making instruction either in Libya or here in the UK," BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner says.

Libya is now "a failed state" after the overthrow of Colonel Gaddafi, he adds: "A horrible regime but what followed was chaos."

The so-called Islamic State group has claimed responsibility but this has not been verified.

Frank says that the "caliphate" which the group has been trying to establish in Iraq and Syria "is almost finished", adding: "There's not much left of their caliphate so they are retaliating."

Candles are burning in Albert Square, lit by those who attended the vigil or visited since.

The Rt Rev David Walker, Bishop of Manchester, says his faith means he knows God is with him, even in dark moments. Others in the city have also taken solace from gathering together.

"Last night I lit one candle at the end of the vigil, but this morning the city is full of candles," he says. "People have made that their own symbol of hope."

BBC Radio 5 live

BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner tells Radio 5 Live that the decisions to raise the terrorism threat is an "extremely unusual step and a very serious one indeed".

It will mean "more police and in this case, soldiers, will be visible on the streets". There are likely to be between 400-800 troops to protect key sites and free up the police to carry out more patrols.

"There will also be more visible armed police," Frank adds.

"You can only be at critical for a limited amount to time," he says, because police leave is cancelled and resources are stretched.

The last time the level was at "critical" was in June 2007 and the threat level was brought back down to "severe" in July.

The Polish foreign minister says two Polish nationals missing after the attack are dead, according to the news agency Reuters.

Image source, Getty Images

The BBC's Charlie Stayt is outside the town hall in Albert Square, where last night's vigil took place.

He says there's a robust spirit about Manchester that was clear on Tuesday night.

Parents said their children felt they wanted to go to share in the feelings of others.

But there were also huge questions, he says: "So many people last night were saying how this was an attack on children. And asking, 'How could someone attack children?'"

BBC Radio 5 live

Philippa Grace is an educational psychologist from Winston's Grace, a child bereavement charity.

She tells Radio 5 Live that talking to children about traumatic events "is really important".

Children need honest answers to their questions and if they don't get them, they will make them up "and that can be really frightening", she adds.

Danny Shaw
BBC Home Affairs Correspondent

Further details are emerging about the attacker, Salman Abedi, says the BBC's Danny Shaw. He was born and brought up in Britain but he's believed to be the son of parents who fled the Gaddafi regime, thought to be during in the 1990s.

In recent years he may have spent some time abroad.

Frank Gardner
BBC Security Correspondent

All through the night intelligence officers from MI5, the Security Service, and analysts from GCHQ, the communications agency, will have been working to uncover the bomber’s connections to possible accomplices or even those who might have given him instructions.

This attack is of a completely different order to the low-tech, unskilled attacks that took place in Germany and France last summer, or to the murderous ramming of pedestrians on Westminster Bridge in March.

The recent exhortations by the dwindling leadership of so-called Islamic State to attack westerners in their home countries does not necessarily mean they directed this. But the relative sophistication of the explosive device detonated by Salman Abeidi in Manchester will lead investigators to explore whether this attack was planned, funded and directed by IS commanders in Libya or the Middle East.

The explosive residues recovered from the site by forensic teams will provide some clues as to the origin of the device. The bomber’s phone and internet records will provide others. Salman Abeidi died at the scene but the priority now is to discover who helped him and then get them into custody as fast as possible.

Image source, Reuters

If you are just joining our continuing coverage, it is day two of the response to the bloodiest terrorist attack in the UK since the 7/7 attacks on London in 2005:

• Twenty-two people were killed and 59 people injured in a suicide bomb attack at the Manchester Arena on Monday evening.
• The UK terror threat level has been raised to its highest level of "critical", meaning further attacks may be imminent.
• Military personnel will be deployed to protect key sites under the new threat level.

• About 21,000 people were at the Ariana Grande concert, with a large number of audience members under the age of 18.
• Four victims, eight-year-old Saffie Roussos, 15-year-old Olivia Campbell, 18-year-old Georgina Callander and John Atkinson, 28, have been named.
• Police believe 22-year-old Salman Abedi, born in Manchester of Libyan extraction, committed the attack. His body has not been formally identified by coroners.
• Abedi is believed to have gone to Libya, returning just days before the attack - which has been claimed by so-called Islamic State.
• A 23-year-old man was arrested in Chorlton, south Manchester, in connection with the inquiry.

The US Democratic Party politician, who lost to Donald Trump in last year's presidential election, said she was "outraged and angry".

The story of two homeless men who rushed to help victims of the Manchester attack has touched many, and fundraising campaigns on their behalf have raised thousands of pounds.

Speaking to the Press Association, Chris Parker described a scene of horror: "I heard a bang and within a split second I saw a white flash, then smoke and then I heard screaming.

"It knocked me to the floor and then I got up and instead of running away my gut instinct was to run back and try and help. There was people lying on the floor everywhere. I saw a little girl... she had no legs. I wrapped her in one of the merchandise T-shirts and I said 'where is your mum and daddy?' She said: 'My dad is at work, my mum is up there'."

Mr Parker said he thought the mother had died.

You can hear Stephen Jones describe his own, traumatic experiences in the ITV News tweet below.

Charlotte Campbell, mother of 15-year-old Olivia Campbell, has gone on Facebook to confirm her daughter is among those who died in Monday evening's suicide bombing at the Manchester Arena.

"RIP my darling precious gorgeous girl... taken far far to soon go sing with the angels and keep smiling mummy loves you so much," she wrote.

Olivia's family had spent Tuesday desperately searching for her, hoping she was one of the dozens of people injured and being treated in hospital.

This tweet by US broadcaster CBS captures the moment France's most famous monument turned out its sparkling illuminations to honour the victims across The Channel.

Paris suffered at the hands of so-called Islamic State in November 2015 when the militants massacred concert-goers at the Bataclan venue and other people across the city.

In New York, the Empire State Building stayed dark in a tribute of its own to the victims of the Manchester bombing.

That's the headline in Wednesday's edition of French daily Liberation.

Image source, Liberation

The wife and two children of Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola were at the Ariana Grande concert, the Daily Telegraph reports, external. It is understood that all three are safe and unhurt, the paper says.

Guardiola sent his condolences to the families and friends of the victims.

The man has been taken to a south London police station where he is being detained under the Terrorism Act.

Officers are now searching two residential addresses in north London.

It is being stressed that the arrest is linked to travel to Syria - not the terrorist incident in Manchester.

A man has been arrested by counter-terror police at Stansted Airport on suspicion of planning to travel to Syria and preparing for acts of terrorism, Scotland Yard says.

The 37-year-old was stopped before boarding a flight to Turkey on Tuesday night.

The arrest is not connected to the Manchester Arena attack,

Syria has been wracked by civil war since 2011, with so-called Islamic State controlling a swathe of territory in the north-east.