Police identified two of the London attackers on Monday after Britain’s third terror assault in less than three months, as Prime Minister Theresa May came under mounting pressure over security just days ahead of elections.
National counter-terrorism police chief Mark Rowley named two of the three slain assailants as Khuram Butt and Rachid Redouane, revealing that Butt had been known to security services.
The aftermath of Saturday night’s rampage, which left seven dead and dozens wounded, dominated the campaign trail ahead of Thursday’s general election.
Labor leader Jeremy Corbyn said he would support calls for May to quit, as she had overseen a sharp reduction in police numbers in her past job as interior minister.
The attack, claimed by the Islamic State group, saw three men wearing fake suicide vests use a white van to mow down people on London Bridge and then slash and stab revelers enjoying a Saturday night in the bustling Borough Market area.
Armed police reacted swiftly, killing the attackers within eight minutes with 50 shots.
Butt was 27 and a British citizen born in Pakistan.
He appeared in a Channel 4 documentary entitled “The Jihadis Next Door” about British extremists that was broadcast last year, local media reported.
Redouane was 30 and “claimed to be Moroccan and Libyan”. Police said he also used the name of Rachid Elkhdar and a different date of birth that gave his age as 25.
Both men lived in Barking, an ethnically diverse part of east London where police carried out several raids on Sunday and Monday.
All 10 people still being held as part of the investigation were released without charge on Monday.
Police chief Cressida Dick said investigators had seized “a huge amount of forensic material” from the attackers’ van. (AFP)
