The family of a man that was arrested in the Manchester bombing investigation, lived in Dublin before moving to the UK, according to The Sunday Times.

The Sunday Times reported that the family of one of the suspects Ayub Elshetwi, moved from Tripoli to Ireland to escape Colonel Muammar Gadaffi’s regime.

Ayub was arrested in the West Midlands area on Wednesday in a police operation. Police brought him to the ground using a taser after a chase through the neighbourhood.

They also searched the family’s house and took away computers and phones. He is still being held by anti-terrorism police.

Police enter an address in Nuneaton after a man was arrested | Image: PA images

The Sunday Times said that his family still has cousins in Qasr bin Ghashir, a town 20 miles south of Tripoli, where their uncle currently works.

Ayub Elshetwi’s 20-year-old sister, Esra was born in Ireland, before the family moved to Nuneaton.

Esra is known to have distributed leaflets urging people in Nuneaton and Coventry to convert to Islam and is said to be deeply religious.

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Yesterday, Ayub's father Naser Elshetwi told reporters outside his house that the family were peace-loving and abhorred the attack in Manchester.

He said he believed his son was innocent but if he had anything to do with the attack, he would deserve any punishment he got.

Naser said he had taken his two eldest sons to Libya in 2015 to prevent them getting into trouble in Nuneaton.

They were both enrolled in a private college in Tripoli for British students, but later returned to Britain last July after their father was shot.