London terrorists had tried to hire truck to mow down people, but their payment failed

It looks as if it (the attack) is a contained plot involving the three (Butt, Redouane and Zaghba), which is supported by the forensic evidence we’ve got DEAN HAYDON, counter-terrorism command chief

LONDON: The assailants behind last week’s terror attack in London had also prepared a stash of Molotov cocktails and initially tried to hire a truck rather than a van to mow down pedestrians, British police said on Saturday.

The Metropolitan Police said forensic officers examining the white rental van found “13 wine bottles with rags wrapped around them and believed to be filled with a flammable liquid,” as well as two blowtorches.

The three attackers struck pedestrians with the van and then went on a stabbing spree wearing fake suicide vests last Saturday in the London Bridge area, a popular nightlife district.

Eight people were killed before the assailants – Khuram Shazad Butt, Rachid Redouane and Youssef Zaghba – were shot dead by police. Forty-eight people were injured.

Police also said Butt had tried to hire a 7.5-tonne lorry hours before carrying out the attack, but was turned down because the payment failed.

“Because of the fact his payment method failed he couldn’t get hold of that lorry,” counterterrorism command chief Dean Haydon told reporters.

“My view at the moment is that he then went to plan B and ended up hiring the van instead,” Haydon said. “When I come back to Butt trying to get hold of a 7.5 tonne lorry – the effect could have been even worse.”

Trucks have been used in a string of terror attacks in Europe over the past year.

Last July, a 31-year-old Tunisian extremist rammed a 19-tonne truck through a crowd celebrating Bastille Day in the French Riviera city of Nice, killing 86 people and injuring more than 400. On December 19, a 24-year-old Tunisian ploughed a truck through a Christmas market in Berlin, killing 11 and wounding dozens.