MI5 watched as London Bridge attackers set off

MI5 watched the London Bridge terror suspects loading their van and heading to commit the attack, it has been alleged.

Khuram Butt, the ringleader of the London Bridge terror attack, was reportedly seen on CCTV outside his home getting into the van used to mow people down on the bridge.

A report by David Anderson QC, the Government’s former independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, appears to suggest that “CCTV from Butt’s home address on the evening of the attack showed footage of Butt getting into a white van, hired earlier that day, with a large red holdall. Two males accompanied him”.

On the day of the attack Butt, 27, was still the subject of “a live investigation”, meaning it is likely that a team from MI5 and Scotland Yard were covertly watching his activities at key locations, such as his flat in Barking, east London, according to sources who spoke to The Sunday Times.

Records of the vehicle’s movements indicate that, after leaving his flat on June 3 last year, Butt, Rachid Redouane and Youssef Zagba scouted Trafalgar Square and Oxford Circus before striking at London Bridge.

They mowed down victims on the bridge with their van, killing two, before rampaging through nearby Borough Market, fatally stabbing six people. The three attackers were eventually shot dead by police.

James Hodder, whose girlfriend Kirsty Boden was killed in the attack, said: “It’s important the authorities know that society, including the victims’ families, will

‘Society will hold the authorities accountable for any errors’

hold them accountable for any errors.”

Butt, a former disciple of the jailed hate preacher Anjem Choudary, had been on MI5’S radar since mid-2015 as a “subject of interest”.

At one time intelligence personnel and undercover police were watching him around the clock, but the surveillance operation was later downgraded as MI5 assessed Butt was more likely to travel to Syria to join Isil.

The Home Office declined to comment further.