LONDON ATTACK VICTIMS NAMED AS DEATH TOLL RISES TO EIGHT
THE death toll from the London Bridge attack has risen to eight as pressure on British authorities intensified amid new questions about how the terrorists slipped through the net.
As the fallout from the atrocity continued, the ex-partner of one of the perpetrators spoke of her shock and condemned his actions.
Charisse O’Leary said she has “shed many tears for the people caught up in this horrific incident” since discovering Rachid Redouane was one of the three attackers.
In a statement, she said her “heartfelt thoughts go out to all those murdered or injured” on Saturday night.
“I am deeply shocked, saddened and numbed by the actions of my ex-partner who has killed and injured so many innocent people,” Miss O’Leary said.
She said she had been separated from Redouane for six months.
“We have a beautiful young daughter, that for the last six months has been our only bond and reason for contact,” she continued.
“My thoughts and efforts now are with trying to bring up my daughter with the knowledge that some day I will have to try and explain to her why her father did what he did.”
She added: “I wish to make it absolutely clear, so there can be no doubt, I condemn his actions and do not support the beliefs he held that led to him committing this atrocity.”
Meanwhile, controversy over the UK’s counter-terror efforts spread to border security after claims emerged that another of the perpetrators was let into the country despite being on a security watch list.
Youssef Zaghba is said to have been stopped by Italian officers trying to travel to Syria last year.
Prosecutors in Italy say there was not enough evidence to arrest or charge the 22-year-old when he was intercepted at Bologna airport.
However, unconfirmed reports suggest he was placed on the Schengen Information System (SIS II), a vast database of alerts about individuals and objects of interest to EU law enforcement agencies. It contains information on thousands of people wanted under the European Arrest Warrant, as well as suspected foreign fighters.
Alerts are made available in the UK through the police national computer and to Border Force officers at immigration controls.
Authorities are facing pressure to detail whether an alert was flagged about Zaghba when he came into the UK and whether he was stopped at the border.
The Home Office has not commented as there is an ongoing police investigation, although Scotland Yard has said Zaghba, who lived in east London, was not a police or MI5 subject of interest.
Questions over the extent to which the terror gang were known to security services have been mounting since it was revealed the other attacker, Khuram Shazad Butt, 27, had been investigated in 2015.
The revelation meant perpetrators in all three of the terrorist outrages to hit the UK this year had been on the radar at some point.
Zaghba, Pakistan-born British citizen Butt and Redouane, 30, who claimed to be Moroccan-Libyan, launched a rampage around London Bridge and Borough Market on Saturday night.
Police have said Redouane was not known to security services. Butt and Redouane both lived in Barking, east London.
Redouane was not involved in any terror cell in Ireland during his time there, the country’s police chief has said.
But Garda Commissioner Noirin O’Sullivan accepted he went through a “normal process of immigration” in Dublin.
Redouane, who claimed to be Moroccan-Libyan, had previously been refused asylum in the UK in 2009.
His marriage to a UK citizen in Dublin in 2012, giving him an EU travel permit, has prompted claims that Ireland is being used by jihadis as a back door into Britain.
Two people believed to have documents linked to the killer have been arrested in Ireland.
One Garda source said there is no knowledge of Redouane having been involved with other international terror suspects who have been under surveillance in Ireland, and that he lived an apparently normal life during his time in Dublin.
But the source added that investigators were “still shaking the tree”.
Saturday night’s rampage was brought to an end when the trio were shot dead by police eight minutes after
the first emergency call.
The death toll reached eight after a body was recovered near Limehouse, downstream from London Bridge, at around 7.45pm on Tuesday. Xavier Thomas, 45, is thought to have been struck by the terrorists’ van on the bridge.
The other seven victims killed have been named as Canadian Christine Archibald, 30, James McMullan, 32, from Hackney, east London, Alexandre Pigeard, 27, and Sebastien Belanger, 36, both from France, Australians Kirsty Boden, 28, and Sara Zelenak, and Spaniard Ignacio Echeverria, 39.
Ms Zelenak, an au pair, died after becoming separated from her friend.
Sharing a video of his daughter online, her father Mark Wallace wrote: “I really miss that funny little laugh.”
Friend Elle Bishop said on Facebook: “I find solace in the fact that the hate that saw you taken from us, you have never felt inside, making you a remarkable young woman.”
Mr Echeverria, a banker, was killed after trying to defend a woman with his skateboard in the Borough Market area.
The Spanish foreign ministry confirmed the death yesterday, saying: “The exemplary attitude of Ignacio Echeverria during the attacks is, for everybody, a model of solidarity.”
His father, Joaquin Echeverria, said British authorities had previously not shared any information with them, but his son’s employer, HSBC, had provided the services of a private detective to help with their search.
Mr Belanger, orginally from Angers, western France, had lived in London for several years and reportedly worked at the Coq d’Argent restaurant in the City.
The BBC said the chef’s aunt had confirmed that his body was identified by his mother and brother yesterday. His friend Damien Lecomte, 34, said on Monday: “He is the very definition of a friend – always here to help you, to listen to you. Whatever he can do to help you, he is going to be there.”
Brittany news outlet Le Telegramme reported an account from Boro Bistro manager Vincent Le Berre, who told how his colleague, Mr Pigeard, said to have originally been from Caen, France, was attacked by a terrorist in the bar near Borough Market on Saturday night.
“I managed to escape him, but my friend Alexandre did not have that chance. He was hit in the neck with a knife,” he said.
In other developments, a 30-yearold man was arrested as detectives raided an address in Ilford, east London, in the early hours of yesterday.
NHS England said 10 victims remained in a critical condition. In total 29 people are being treated at five London hospitals.
The so-called Islamic State terror group has claimed responsibility for the atrocity.