ADVERTISEMENTAs the investigation continues into the London terror attack it has become clear that at least one of the suspects was known to police.
Khuram Butt and Rachid Redouane have been named as two of the three attackers. Butt had reportedly alarmed at least two people over his radicalism and had contacted the authorities.
Butt had also appeared in a television documentary about extremists.
The third attacker was named by an Italian security source as Youssef Zaghba, a Moroccan-Italian living in east London. The source said the British authorities had been informed after Zaghba tried to travel to Syria last year.
Jibril Palomba,a local resident whose wife previously reported Khuram Butt to Barking police for his attempts to radicalise her children:
“The police, they are asking the community to help to get information or whatever suspicious. I don’t know how many advice I am meant to have during the day on the radio. You know, and when someone gives them some kind of information, they just take it and chuck it away.”
Londoners have held a vigil to mourn the seven people who were killed and dozens injured by three attackers on Saturday night, when they rammed a van into pedestrians on London bridge before stabbing others.
Many of those gathered on the banks of the River Thames vowed not to be divided by extremists tactics.
“Well it was absolutely barbaric. It doesn’t represent Islam. It has been said countless times before, this isn’t the first time something like this is happening in the UK or America as well. But we do reject it completely. We condemn it in the utmost way,“said Muhammad Abdullah of the Ahmadiya Muslim community
All twelve people arrested on Sunday have now been released without charge. Police say the investigation is progressing but have also said none of the suspected attackers had been previously judged as a security threat. Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley said: “I would urge anyone with information about these men, their movements in the days and hours before the attack and the places they frequented to come forward.
“The police and our partners are doing everything we can across the country to help prevent further attacks and protect the public from harm.
“At any one time MI5 and police are conducting around 500 active investigations, involving 3,000 subjects of interest. Additionally, there are around 20,000 individuals who are former subjects of interest, whose risk remains subject to review by MI5 and its partners.
“The security and intelligence services and police have stopped 18 plots since 2013, including five since the Westminster attack two months ago.”