MI5 chief: 'I am profoundly sorry'

SECURITY SERVICE REGRETS FAILURE OF INTELLIGENCE

- PAUL BRITTON

SECURITY service MI5 has said sorry for not preventing the Manchester Arena terror bombing after a report found opportunities were missed.

Director General, Ken McCallum, issued a statement after significant 'missed opportunities' to take action that might have prevented the attack were laid out in the third and final report arising from the public inquiry into the 2017 atrocity.

He said the chairman of the inquiry, Sir John Saunders, had found 'there was a realistic possibility that actionable intelligence could have been obtained which might have led to actions preventing the attack.'

MI5, added Mr McCallum, 'deeply regret that such intelligence was not obtained.

The Home Secretary, meanwhile, said authorities would 'do everything possible to prevent a repeat of this horrifying attack.'

Sir John said a security service officer should have acted more quickly after key intelligence concerning bomber Salman Abedi came in before the suicide bombing of May 22, 2017. That intelligence, he said, wasn't shared with counter-terrorism police.

The report details two key pieces of information that came into MI5, titled in the report Piece of Intelligence 1 and 2, the exact detail and nature of which have not been made public for reasons of national security in the 207-page report released yesterday.