TRIO’S PALS UNITED IN GRIEF
because I know him more and it’s just sad to know he’s gone so early.” A minute’s silence was held outside the pub.
Reading Pride chief Martin Cooper, another regular, said that James and Joe were “great supporters” of the LGBT+ community, adding: “Love unites and we must rally as a community.”
Witnesses have told how a pleasant night at Forbury Gardens park suddenly became a scene of carnage as a suspected terrorist began stabbing people.
Speaking in the Commons yesterday, Tory MP Chris Loder told how a member of his staff was there and ran to help the injured. He said the worker “not only used his own shirt to stem the bleeding of one victim but continued resuscitation on a second until paramedics arrived”. Business Secretary Alok Sharma left flowers at Forbury Park and Priti Patel praised the police who responded.
The Home Secretary said: “These officers are heroes. They are the very best of us.”
Saadallah was held close to the park, which he lives a mile away from. Police were last night given permission to hold him until Saturday.
The 25-year-old, who came here in 2012, is said to have had mental health issues for several years.
After fleeing Libya, Saadallah settled in Bury, Greater Manchester.
He told friends he had been forced to leave his home country as his life was at risk. One person who knew him in Manchester said he held big parties, inviting people that he had got to know on Facebook.
They added: “All I know is he came from Libya as he was in danger of being killed. “He was such a nice guy to his friends. If I didn’t have any bread and he did, he would give it to me.”
One woman said: “He didn’t speak English but his parties were famous.
“Everyone from Bury was there.”
Counter Terrorism Policing South East head DCS Kath Barnes said last night: “This investigation is continuing at a pace. We have a large team working to establish exactly what happened.”
The three people injured have now left hospital.
BY CHRIS HUGHES BRITISH counter-terror officers are aware of almost 20,000 foreign former jihadi suspects who are still abroad and might enter Britain to carry out attacks.
They are extremists on MI5 files even though they have never travelled to the UK, but can be checked if they do.
All of them are “closed subjects of interest” but, as a recent Government paper admitted, any of them could return to being an active threat to Britain “at any time”.
It adds: “This does not mean these SOIs will never pose a threat again, but merely that their current level of threat is not judged to be sufficient to prioritise allocating investigative resources against them.”
Information on threats is fed to MI5 by foreign intelligence agencies, who pass on crucial information to the UK as part of a vast intelligencesharing network.
Chillingly, there are more than 3,000 “subjects of interest” – people deemed a current threat.
There are several hundred “frustrated travellers” who have been unable to head to Syria or elsewhere to fight jihad.
According to Europol figures, as many as 400 UK jihadis have returned to the country.
Among these returnees just 40 are thought to have been prosecuted.
Round-the-clock surveillance operations are mounted only if suspects appear to be plotting an attack.
Costing £25,000 a day or more, there may be fewer than 20 ongoing.
A Whitehall source said: “Someone who has shown an interest in launching an attack may be diverted into doing something else… and may be temporarily downgraded.
“There are limited resources so teams are re-prioritised regularly and tough choices have to be made at the time.”
MARTIN COOPER CEO OF READING PRIDE