British authorities have identified two of the three men behind Saturday night’s London terror attack as foreign nationals who lived in East London.
Khuram Shazad Butt and Rachid Redouane were shot dead by police following the terrorist attack on London Bridge and at Borough Market. Police also killed a third man, who has yet to be identified.
Updates: Two men shot dead by police following terrorist attack in #LondonBridge #BoroughMarket named https://t.co/prQUaxy2k4 pic.twitter.com/LR4klVhZ64
— Metropolitan Police (@metpoliceuk) June 5, 2017
All three men were confronted and shot by police within eight minutes of the first report of the attack in which they drove a van into pedestrians on London Bridge before running into crowded bars and a marketplace where they began stabbing people at random.
Butt, 27, was a British citizen who was born in Pakistan. Redouane, 30, had claimed to be Moroccan and Libyan. He also used the name Rachid Elkhdar, with a different date of birth, according to police. Inquiries are ongoing to confirm the identity of their accomplice.
“Work is ongoing to understand more about them, their connections and whether they were assisted or supported by anyone else. As I think you are aware, there are searches ongoing in East London, and 12 arrests have been made. There is of course more to do, and we will work relentlessly to establish the facts,” Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley said in a statement.
Police detained 12 others in connection with the June 3 terror attack in which seven people were killed and 48 others injured. Authorities are not releasing their names at this point. Two have since been released without charges.
Several media reports allege Butt and Redouane were known to police prior to the London attacks.
Butt, a married father of two, was reportedly filmed unfurling an ISIS flag on national TV and had been reported to police for his extremist views, The Daily Mail reported.
Last year, Butt appeared in a documentary about British jihadis and has been involved in several other altercations related to Islamist extremist.
Less is known about Redouane, but he is believed to have been a pastry chef living in Ireland married to a Scottish woman.
Police admitted Butt was known to them, but said in a statement, “There was no intelligence to suggest that this attack was being planned, and the investigation had been prioritised accordingly.”
“Work is ongoing to understand more about them, their connections and whether they were assisted or supported by anyone else. We cannot say more about them at this stage,” according to the statement.
