UK | Terrorism | Police name third London attacker

Undated photo combo handout issued by the police yesterday of the killed perpetrators: Khuram Shazad Butt (left) Rachid Redouane,(centre) and Youssef Zaghba

British police yesterday named the third London Bridge attacker as an Italian national of Moroccan descent, and Italian officials said they had passed on their concerns about him to British intelligence officials last year.

Police said 22-year-old Youssef Zaghba lived in east London and that his family has been notified, adding that he had not been considered to be a “subject of interest” to either police or the intelligence services.

The other two attackers were named earlier as Khuram Shazad Butt and Rachid Redouane.

The three, who were wearing fake suicide vests, were shot dead late Saturday [early Sunday Macau time] after ramming a van into pedestrians on London Bridge and then slashing and stabbing people in nearby Borough Market. During the attack, seven people were killed and dozens more were wounded.

An official at the Bologna chief prosecutor’s office said Zaghba was stopped at the city’s airport after arriving on a flight from London 2016.

An Italian interior ministry official told The Associated Press that British and Moroccan intelligence and law-enforcement authorities were informed that Zaghba had been flagged as someone “at risk” — but no other details were released.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not allowed to discuss details of the case.

Italian news reports said authorities sequestered Zaghba’s cell phone and passport when he was stopped at the airport, but that he successfully got them back after a court determined there wasn’t enough evidence to accuse him of any terrorism-related crime.

Italy has expelled more than 40 people in the past two years who were suspected of radicalization activities but for whom there was insufficient evidence to bring formal charges. Zaghba’s Italian citizenship prevented such an expulsion, Italian daily Repubblica said.

Zaghba was reportedly working in a London restaurant and had not been seen in Italy since 2016.

A British government official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak about the investigation confirmed the details of the Italian report, and said the man had not been considered a “person of interest,” meaning they had no reason to think he was violent or planning an attack.

Police yesterday carried out a new search in a neighborhood in east London near the home of two of the London Bridge attackers. The search in Ilford, just north of Barking, is seeking to determine whether the group had accomplices.

London police have said all 12 people from the Barking neighborhood held since the attack have been freed. AP