The high commission refuted a report by The Times of UK yesterday, quoting friends of the three students as saying that Abedi may have used the trio’s address in order to avoid detection by enforcement authorities in the UK.

“The Malaysian High Commission in London stresses that the information that Salman Abedi ‘may have tried to use it (the students’ rented house) as a place to stay, off the radar of the security services’ was provided by an unknown source, who the Times claims to be ‘friends’ of the three students.

“The three students have confessed to the National Crime Agency (NCA) of the UK that they have never met or made any contact with Salman Abedi,” the high commission said.

“Therefore, the assumption that Abedi may have used the students’ rented house to hide from the security service is simply not true.”

The three Malaysian students, two of whom are medical students at Manchester University and the other a student at Manchester Metropolitan University, were detained by police for just over three hours but were released without any charges.

The high commission had also confirmed the detention and questioning of the students in a statement released on Tuesday.

“The students were reportedly taken to the Longsight police station in Manchester at 5.40pm and released at 9pm, on Monday” it said, without giving any further details.

The Malaysians were believed to have been staying in the same place for the past four years, but any links between Abedi and the address has not been revealed by the authorities.

According to The Times, friends had shared how the trio were all strong advocates against Islamic extremism and terrorism, besides being “hard-working and of good character”.

“These students are Malaysians and Malaysians in general tend to be communal. If this guy is known locally and went to the mosque near by, it is possible they have interacted at some point,” a friend of the Malaysians was quoted as saying by the daily.

The high commission said today that it was important to highlight that there was no link between the three Malaysian students and Abedi, and that “any assumption or allegation to suggest otherwise remains a matter of conjecture”.

The Manchester terrorist attack, in which Abedi blew himself up in the Manchester Arena at the end of a pop concert by Ariana Grande on May 22, resulted in the deaths of 22 people, including children, and injuries to more than 50 people.

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