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U.K. police arrest 10 in London attack probe, search 21 sites
British police are combing through “massive amounts of computer data,” have searched more than 20 sites and have contacted thousands of witnesses in a vast operation to trace how a British man became radicalized and launched a deadly attack on Parliament, a senior official said Friday.
In a briefing outside Scotland Yard, London’s top counterterror officer Mark Rowley said more “significant” arrests had been made, bringing to 10 the number of people in custody over Wednesday’s attack, which killed four people and the assailant. Police said the attacker, Khalid Masood, was born Adrian Russell Ajao in southern England in 1964. He was also known as Adrian Elms and “may also be known by a number of other names,” police said.
The latest arrests were a man and a woman detained early Friday in Manchester, northwest England. Police believe Masood acted alone but Rowley said police were trying to determine whether others “encouraged, supported or directed him.”
The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the attack on Westminster Bridge and at Parliament.
Detectives have searched 21 properties in London, Brighton, Wales, Manchester and the central English city of Birmingham in one of Britain’s biggest counterterrorism operations in years.
Wednesday’s attack was the deadliest in Britain since suicide bombers killed 52 commuters on London’s transit system in July 2005.
“We’ve seized 2,700 items from these searches, including massive amounts of computer data for us to work through,” Rowley said, adding contact had been made with 3,500 witnesses. “We’ve received hundreds of uploads of video images to our online platform. Given this attack was in the heart of the capital we also, of course, are dealing with statements from a wide range of nationalities.”