The investigation into a suicide blast that killed at least 22 people at a pop concert dramatically widened Wednesday, with security services on two continents rounding up suspects amid fears that the bombmaker who devised the bolt-spewing source of the carnage remains at large.
The arrests stretched from the normally quiet lanes of a northern English town to the bustling streets of Tripoli, where Libyan officials said they had disrupted a planned attack by the suspected bomber's brother.
But by day's end, British authorities acknowledged that they remained vulnerable to a follow-up attack, with the nation's state of alert stuck at "critical" - the highest possible level.
The sight of soldiers deploying at London landmarks such as Buckingham Palace and 10 Downing Street underscored the gravity of a threat that was known in general terms before Monday night's explosion but has come sharply into focus in the 48 hours since.
The morning after the attack, police had said they believed that the suspect, 22-year-old Salman Abedi, a British citizen, had carried it out alone and had died in the blast he triggered.
But in their statements Wednesday, authorities expressed growing confidence that Abedi - who had recently returned from a trip to Libya and may have also traveled to Syria - had been only one part of a web of plotters behind Britain's worst terrorist attack in more than a decade.
"It's very clear that this is a network we are investigating," Greater Manchester Chief Constable Ian Hopkins said.
Hopkins said police were moving quickly to disrupt the group, carrying out raids across the city and arresting four people, including Abedi's older brother, Ismail. A fifth suspect was later apprehended carrying "a suspicious package" in the town of Wigan, about 20 miles west of Manchester.
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