Who was the man behind the attack?
The man who mowed down pedestrians and stabbed a policeman in Wednesday’s deadly assault outside Britain’s parliament has been identified by police as 52-year-old former convict Khalid Masood.
Known by “a number of aliases”, London’s Metropolitan Police said he had been convicted for a string of offences but none of them was terror-related.
Born on December 25, 1964 in Kent , England, Masood had been living in the West Midlands where armed police have staged several raids since the attack.
The police confirmed he was a British citizen.
He was brought up by a single parent in the town of Rye, on the southern English coast, according to The Times.
Over the course of two decades, Masood chalked up a range of convictions for assault, grievous bodily harm, possession of offensive weapons and public order offences, police said, with the incidents taking place between 1983 and 2003.
Prime Minister Theresa May said he was once investigated by the intelligence service MI5 “in relation to concerns about violent extremism”.
But Masood had never been convicted of terrorism offences and “was not the subject of any investigations,” the police said.
At 52, his age has been highlighted by commentators as unusual, with most Islamist extremists behind similar attacks far younger.
Although the police believe Masood acted alone, the Islamic State group claimed he was one of its “soldiers” acting on a call to target countries fighting the jihadists in Iraq and Syria.
British media described Masood as a Muslim convert, with one source telling Sky News he was a “very religious, well spoken man”.
More recently Masood may have been living in a flat next to a Persian restaurant and a pizza parlour in the upmarket Edgbaston neighbourhood, according to reports.
One neighbour at that address told The Telegraph newspaper they were fearful after the day’s events: “It’s left me so scared and I don’t know what to tell the children. He seemed like a normal calm and kind family man, always with a smile on his face.”