Tearful tribute
Cops make two ‘significant’ arrests and release photo of attacker
People gathering for a vigil in Trafalgar Square in central London where they lit candles in solidarity with the victims of the March 22 terror attack at the British parliament and on Westminster Bridge. Left: London Mayor Sadiq Khan greeting police officers outside the Houses of Parliament in London.
LONDON: British police said they had made two further “significant” arrests over the terror attack on parliament, as they appealed for
released the first
information and
picture of the
homegrown killer who left four people dead.
Nine people are now in custody over Wednesday’s rampage in Westminster, in which at least 50 people were injured, 31 requiring hospital treatment, counter-terrorism commander Mark Rowley said.
Police have searched 16 addresses, with five more raids still under way, mainly in London and the central city of Birmingham, where the attacker reportedly lived and near where he rented the car used in the assault.
The police officer also revealed the attacker’s birth name as Adrian Russell Ajao, after naming him Thursday as Khalid Masood (inset), a 52-year-old who used “a number of aliases” and had a history of violent offences but no terrorist convictions.
The Islamic State group claimed the assailant behind Britain’s deadliest terror attack in 12 years was one of its “soldiers” acting on a call to target countries in the US-led coalition fighting the group.
Prime Minister Theresa May has said that Masood was known to intelligence services as a “peripheral” figure some years ago but there was no warning of his intention to mount an attack.
Rowley said yesterday that police were trying to establish whether Masood acted totally alone “or if others have encouraged, supported or directed him”.
Masood ran over dozens of pedestrians and tourists on Westminster Bridge on Wednesday afternoon before crashing his car into parlia- ment, where he managed to stab a police officer before being shot dead.
Lawmakers returned to work as normal on Thursday morning, even as forensic officers worked at the scene, but a review of parliamentary security is now underway.
Hundreds of people gathered in nearby Trafalgar Square late on Thursday for a vigil led by Mayor Sadiq Khan who vowed that “Londoners will never be cowed by terrorism.
Police earlier said that five men and three women aged between 21 and 58 were arrested “on suspicion of preparation of terrorist acts”. One woman was later released on bail.
Rowley gave no details of the new arrests, only to say that they took place in the West Midlands – the area of the country that includes Birmingham – and the north-west of England.
Born in Kent in southeast England, Masood was a British citizen with convictions for assault and possession of offensive weapons dating from 1983 to 2003. According to The Sun tabloid, he married a Muslim woman in 2004 and moved the following year to Saudi Arabia to teach, returning in 2009.
Police said he went by numerous aliases while reports suggest he lived all over England, including in Luton and east London.
He was described as “a nice guy” by Iwona Romek, a former neighbour in Birmingham, who told the Birmingham Mail: “He had a wife, a young Asian woman and a small child who went to school.”