Manchester suicide bomber Salman Abedi reportedly called his mother 15 minutes before launching the deadly attack at Manchester Arena, which left 22 people dead and injured at least 119.
On the call, he told his mother: “Forgive me.”
According to a Libyan anti-terror official, the call was placed in an attempt to “say goodbye” to his family.
Details of the plea for forgiveness emerged after the bomber’s mother, Samia Tabbal, 50, was questioned by police in Tripoli.
Police in Manchester said they have made a series of “significant” arrests in their investigation into the terror attack at Ariana Grande’s Manchester Arena concert.
“I want to reassure people that the arrests that we have made are significant, and initial searches of premises have revealed items that we believe are very important to the investigation,” Greater Manchester Police Chief Constable Ian Hopkins said on Thursday.
“These searches will take several days to complete, as you would expect, therefore there will be some disruption. However, it is important that we continue with these searches.”
He added: “We are now carrying out associated searches at a number of addresses.”
WATCH: Manchester Police Chief said they have contacted immediate family members of those who died. Post continues…
Britain’s terror threat level has been raised to its highest possible level in response to the bombing, amid fears the suicide bomber acted as part of “a network.”
In a live address on Wednesday, Ms May said: “It is a possibility we cannot ignore that there is a wider group of individuals linked to this attack.”
“The joint terrorist analysis centre has concluded that the threat level should be increased for the time being from severe to critical.”
“This means that their assessment is not only that an attack remains highly likely but a further attack is imminent.”
She added: “I do not want the public to feel unduly alarmed. We have faced a serious terror threat in our country for many years and the operational response I have just outlined is a proportionate and sensible response to the threat that our security experts judge we face.”
The militant group Islamic State have claimed responsibility for the horrific attack, but officials have not yet confirmed if this is true.