The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Woman stunned to find out neighbour was terrorist
Searches are continuing at a flat and a house in Birmingham following police raids linked to the Westminster terror attack.
After residents described the frightening moment when armed police stormed a second-floor flat in the city’s Hagley Road overnight, it emerged officers are also examining a three-storey townhouse in nearby Winson Green.
Car rental firm Enterprise confirmed the Hyundai 4x4 used in the attack was rented in Spring Hill, Birmingham, less than a mile from the house being searched.
In a statement, the car hire company said one of its employees had identified the vehicle after seeing the licence plate in an image online and the firm had immediately contacted the authorities.
Meanwhile, police named the attacker as Khalid Masood, 52.
At a house being searched in the city, his former neighbour Iwona Romek, said she could not believe her eyes when she realised the man who had lived near her was the same person responsible for the attack.
She said: “I am very surprised, I cannot believe it.”
“Because when I saw him, I couldn’t even see that he could do something like this.
“Now I’m scared that someone like that was living close to me.”
Ms Romek said she had seen him with a child, aged between five and six years old, and a partner but that they had moved away around two to three months ago.
Other residents, elsewhere in Birmingham, told how more than a dozen black-clad officers equipped with machine guns smashed their way in to the Birmingham flat, believed to be a rental property, at about 11pm on Wednesday.
The Met have confirmed the raid was part of a wider operation in which several addresses were searched and eight arrests made.
A shopkeeper said police had told customers and staff to stay inside the store while the operation continued.