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Westminister Attack: New arrests as British police release photo of attacker

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AFP
AFP
Agence France-Presse

British police said Friday they had made further “significant” arrests over the terror attack on parliament, as they released the first picture of the homegrown killer who left four people dead.

Khalid Masood, a 52-year-old Briton with a history of violent offences but no terrorist convictions, was shot by police on Wednesday after a rampage through Westminster.

Ten other suspects are in custody following searches at 21 locations, mostly around London, in the central city of Birmingham and in the northwestern city of Manchester.

Police said there was no further threat, but counter-terrorism commander Mark Rowley said they were trying to establish whether Masood acted alone “or if others have encouraged, supported or directed him”.

Released by police, the passport-style photo of Masood, who also used the names Adrian Elms and Adrian Russell Ajao among other aliases, shows a black man with a shaved head and a goatee beard.

Prime Minister Theresa May has said he was known to intelligence services as a “peripheral” figure some years ago but there was no warning of his plans to stage an attack.

At least 50 people from 12 different countries were injured when Masood ploughed his rented car into crowds of people walking along the pavement on Westminster Bridge, before crashing the vehicle into the fence outside parliament.

Three people on the bridge died after being hit by the speeding car then the attacker leapt out and fatally stabbed a police officer just inside the gates of the Houses of Parliament before being shot dead.

Rowley described the overnight arrests of two men aged 27 and 35 in Birmingham and Manchester as “significant”, while police later said a 32-year-old woman had been detained early on Friday in Manchester.

Peaceful future 

Faith leaders including Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, the chief rabbi and the chief imam of London’s central mosque on Friday gathered near the attack site to remember the victims.

Faith-leaders-london

“In standing here, we represent the three Abrahamic faith communities, all equally committed to a peaceful future,” Welby said after observing a minute’s silence outside Westminster Abbey.

Lawmakers returned to work as normal on Thursday morning, even as forensic officers worked at the scene, but a review of parliamentary security is now under way.

Hundreds of people gathered in nearby Trafalgar Square late Thursday for a vigil led by Mayor Sadiq Khan who vowed that “Londoners will never be cowed by terrorism.”

 

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