What lured him from the south to Birmingham?

BIRMINGHAM was the final place

Khalid Masood called home before unleashing his terror in Westminster.

Now investigators are trying to piece together why the warped killer was drawn to live in Britain’s second city – dubbed the “jihadi finishing school” and “Terror Central of the West”.

Brum has been blighted by its links to Islamic extremism for years and police will be desperate to find out who Masood associated with there.

Before arriving in Birmingham he lived in southern areas with notorious terror links including East London, Luton and Crawley.

But he also spent time in the affluent towns of Rye, East Sussex, and Tunbridge Wells, Kent, some 200 miles away from the Midlands.

Now the reasons that made him move north will be central to the police investigation.

Birmingham is a magnet for extremists who have been spreading messages of hate since the 1980s.

A seemingly impenetrable network of jihadis has flourished, holding underground meetings in backstreet mosques or nondescript terraces in neglected inner-city areas.

MOTIVATION

Masood had been living with his daughter in a neat, modern red-brick semi in the Hockley area of the city.

Neighbours described him as a nice, pleasant man who said he was an English teacher.

Prior to launching the attack he is believed to have been holed up in a flat on Hagley Road, Edgbaston, a busy dual carriageway lined with takeaways, cafes and shops.

Figures show the neighbouring Sparkbrook area of the city was home to one in 10 convicted Islamic terrorists in the UK.

The area, which covers five mainly Muslim council wards, has produced 26 of the country’s 269 known jihadis.

Counter-terrorism officers say their investigation into the attack will focus on Masood’s “motivation, preparation and associates”.

They want to know if the killer, who had spent time in prison and worked in Saudi Arabia, was encouraged, supported or directed in the atrocity.

Violent extremists in Birmingham can be traced back as far as 1984, when Saudi dissident Mohammed Surur ended up there preaching a puritanical fundamentalist version of Islam known as Salafism.

One former extremist said: “Muslims get drawn to the city after being radicalised in other parts of Britain or even other parts of the world.”

RAID Police at the flat on Hagley Road