Parsons Green tube attack: arrested man named as Yahyah Farroukh
The second man arrested by police over the Parsons Green terrorism attack has been named as Yahyah Farroukh.
Pictures showed the 21-year-old man being stopped by officers outside a fried chicken shop in the Hounslow area of west London on Saturday night. Metropolitan police officers were still searching the area on Monday morning.
Officers were also searching an address understood to be Farroukh’s home in nearby Stanwell, in Surrey, only metres from the outer boundaries of Heathrow airport. Farroukh was the second person to be arrested over Friday’s attack; an as-yet unnamed 18-year-old man was stopped by officers near the port of Dover on Friday evening.
According to a Facebook profile thought to belong to Farroukh, he is originally from Damascus, in Syria, and studied English for speakers of other languages at West Thames college, near the Stanwell property. The college has not responded to a request for comment. His profile also claims that he worked for an events company in London.
Images of Farroukh on Facebook show him with family members and posing in front of a tourist site in central London.
It was reported that he and the 18-year-old had spent time with carers Penelope and Ronald Jones, whose home in Sunbury-on-Thames, in Surrey, was raided by armed police on Saturday morning. That address, as well as those in Stanwell and Hounslow, were all still being searched by counter-terrorism investigators on Monday morning.
Images published by the Sun on Sunday night appeared to show Farroukh being arrested by police in Hounslow after a struggle, and officers are understood to have begun searching the chicken shop soon after. Its owner has not responded to a request for comment.
The paper quoted an unnamed witness as saying: “The guy had just walked past the takeaway when three blokes and a woman came running past and he was rugby-tackled to the floor.
“My mates and I thought he was getting jumped. We were going to help him but they shouted ‘undercover police’ so we stepped back.
“The guy was screaming. When they took him down his phone went flying and he dropped his bag containing a drink can and a KitKat. The cops were shouting to get his phone. I guess because it holds important information.
“A forensic team wrapped his arms in plastic up to his biceps and his legs up to his thighs. They put plastic on his shoes then put him in overalls and plastic cuffs. They put him in a car which also had all the seats wrapped in plastic.”
ITV News released footage on Sunday evening showing a man leaving the Sunbury house on the morning of the attack. He was carrying a bag that resembled that photographed in the tube carriage, prompting speculation that he was the bomber.