Manchester suicide bomber Salman Abedi was rescued by the Navy from the fighting in Libya before flying back to Britain, three years ahead of his deadly attack, it has emerged.

The rescue of Abedi - who was known to the security services at the time of his trip to the war-torn country - enabled him to catch a flight home to the UK in August 2014, according to reports.

Nearly three years later he went on to carry out the deadliest terror attack for more than a decade when he set off a bomb at the Manchester Arena in May 2017, killing 22 people.

By the time of the bombing, security services were no longer monitoring him.

The revelation, reported in the Daily Mail, is likely to infuriate the families who lost loved ones in the attack, and raises further fears over possible intelligence mistakes.