UPDATE: |Families of Manchester bomb victims speak of ‘absolute disbelief’ after Hashem Abedi prison attack News

The guards were attacked with hot oil and homemade weapons at HMP Frankland by Manchester bomb plotter Hashem Abedi

The families of the victims of the Manchester Arena bombing atrocity have spoken out about their ‘utter disbelief’ that terrorist Hashem Abedi was able to attack prison officers.

The guards were attacked with hot oil and homemade weapons at HMP Frankland in County Durham on Saturday by the Manchester bomb plotter, the trade union that represents prison officers said.

The officers sustained life-threatening injuries including burns, scalds and stab wounds in the ‘unprovoked’ and ‘vicious’ attack, the Prison Officers’ Association (POA) said. Two officers sustained ‘severe stab wounds’ but are in a stable condition in hospital.

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Families of five of the victims of the Manchester Arena bomb – Megan Hurley, Eilidh Macleod, Chloe Rutherford, Liam Curry, and Kelly Brewster – have written to the Justice Secretary expressing ‘absolute disbelief’ that Abedi was ‘once again allowed to cause danger to life’, the BBC reported.

The broadcaster said it had seen the letter, which read: “In our view, he should not be allowed any privileges whatsoever while serving a sentence for the deaths of 22 innocent lives and the injuring of many more.”

It continued: “He should not have access to anything that he can weaponise, such as hot oil or items he can turn into blades.” The families have called for Abedi to be put in permanent solitary confinement.

The use of kitchens in separation centres and close supervision centres in prisons has been suspended, the MoJ confirmed to the M.E.N, with an internal review into their use in those settings currently being carried out.

A review of the incident will now be undertaken independently of HM Prison and Probation Service.

Abedi was convicted of assisting with the Manchester terror plot, in which his suicide bomber brother Salman killed 22 people by detonating a homemade rucksack-bomb in a crowd of concert-goers. He was handed a record-breaking 55-year minimum term in August 2020 which he is currently serving at the category A HMP Frankland.

Category A is the highest level of security and Frankland has housed other notorious inmates, including Fusilier Lee Rigby’s terrorist killer Michael Adebolajo, Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe, and Charles Bronson.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said he is ‘appalled’ by the attacks and that the government will urgently investigate what happened.

The Prime Minister’s spokesman said: “The Prime Minister is appalled by the attack that we saw at the weekend and his thoughts are with the officers involved. Prison staff work around the clock to keep the country safe and we will never tolerate the violence that is targeted towards them.

“It’s clear that something went terribly wrong in the management of this offender and the Government is committed to carrying out an investigation to urgently get answers.

“Offenders should be managed in such a way that our prison officers are kept safe and there will be an investigation here into what happened that allowed this incident to happen.”

A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: “The Government will do whatever it takes to keep our hardworking staff safe and our thoughts remain with the two prison officers still in hospital as they recover.

“We’ve already taken immediate action to suspend access to kitchens in separation and close supervision centres. We will also launch a full independent review into how this attack was able to happen and will set out the terms and scope of this review in the coming days.”