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Lounging on the beach in Libya with friends and hanging out with his mates in Manchester, this is the teenage boy who became a suicide bomber.

Exclusive pictures show Salman Abedi as an innocent schoolboy, about seven years before he murdered 22 people including children as young as eight by detonating a bomb at Manchester Arena on Monday night. 

According to schoolmates of the 22-year-old killer, the pictures were taken near his home in South Manchester and on a trip in his parents' home country of Libya when he was 14 or 15. The 'ordinary' teenager posing in the new photographs was described as 'quiet' and 'not the sort of kid that stood out' and showed little interest in religion, friends told MailOnline, adding that he even smoked cannabis. 

There is no suggestion any of the friends he was pictured with have been involved in any wrongdoing.