Police ID 2 attackers in deadly London terrorist strike

London’s Metropolitan Police said one attacker was Khuram Shazad Butt, aged 27.

Britain suffered its third major extremist attack in three months on Saturday night when three men using a van and knives killed seven people in a busy area of London.

The three men, who wore fake suicide vests, were shot to death by police.

Police face tough questions after it emerged that Butt, who was a British citizen and is being named as a ringleader behind the atrocity, had been investigated by officers in 2015 but had been “prioritised accordingly” after no intelligence to suggest he was planning an attack was discovered.

Armed police stand over two suspects shot at the scene of a terror attack in London on Saturday.

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Butt’s apparently brazen extremism prompted at least two calls to police – one from a concerned mom who said he’d tried to “radicalize” her kids at a local park two years ago. Butt – who also used the name Abdul Zaitun – is believed to have associated with the outlawed radical Islamist group al-Muhajiroun, co-founded by notorious hate preacher Anjem Choudary.

A new search is underway in a neighborhood near the home of two of the London Bridge attackers, hours after police said they had freed everyone detained following the attack.

Police said on Monday they had released all 12 people arrested in the neighborhood on Sunday without charge. Others who had been arrested were released without being charged.

Britain will ramp up security at polling stations during June 8 general election in light of the recent London terror attack, British media reported Tuesday.

Police killed all three attackers.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn on Monday called on May to quit, pointing to the loss of 20,000 police jobs, mostly during her six years as interior minister under David Cameron.

“One of the individuals who was stabbed in the attack came into the pub and so I was getting messages from them and you’re just trying to figure out who’s where, is everyone OK”, Cook said.

Of the 48 people taken to the hospital following the violence that started on London Bridge and continued in Borough Market, officials said Monday that “36 are now being cared for in London hospitals with 18 remaining in a critical condition”. “I was in the process of moving house, he was looking at the van, asking me where I hired it, how much it cost, and if the vans were available in automatic”, said Chigbo, who lived in a neighbouring apartment in Barking, east London. She said that, in addition to being an attack on London and the United Kingdom, it was also one “on the free world”. “We can not say more about them at this stage”.

The Islamic State terror group, also known as Daesh, has claimed responsibility for the London Bridge rampage, while the attack has sparked fears Britain is in the grip of a spate of copycat incidents.

The attack, and prior attacks in Manchester and near Parliament in London, have prompted Prime Minister Theresa May to call for tougher counter-terrorism laws even if it means changing human rights protections.

In a statement, Ms Archibald’s family said they had lost a “beautiful, loving daughter and sister”.