LONDON/ROME: British police on Tuesday named the third of the jihadis who killed seven people in a knife and van attack in London, and an Italian investigative source said he had been flagged to Britain as a potential risk after moving to England last year.
The fallout from the attack has eclipsed other issues in the British political campaign ahead of Thursday's parliamentary election, with both the ruling Conservatives and opposition Labour Party battling to defend their records on security.
In particular, the revelation that at least one of the attackers, Khuram Butt, was known to security services has raised concerns that they lack the resources to prevent attacks.
Butt, a 27-year-old British national born in Pakistan, had appeared in a British TV documentary broadcast last year called "The Jihadis Next Door".
Saturday night's rampage, in which three men drove into pedestrians on London Bridge before slitting throats and stabbing people in the bustling Borough Market area, was Britain's third Islamist attack in as many months.
British police said the third assailant was Youssef Zaghba, 22, and that he had not been a subject of interest for them or the MI5 domestic intelligence agency.
An investigative source told Reuters in Rome that Zaghba, who had a Moroccan father and Italian mother, had been stopped at Bologna airport in 2016 on suspicion of being on his way to Syria, and carrying material about Islamic extremism on an electronic device.
A second source said Italian authorities had flagged him up to British authorities after he moved to England last year.
Zaghba had lived in Morocco for much of his life but had made short visits to Italy to see his mother in Bologna.
All three #LondonBridge #BoroughMarket attackers now named by police.Please contact us with any info about these men https://t.co/fRuWy2tAHh pic.twitter.com/HFDOP0Bx1D
— Metropolitan Police (@metpoliceuk) June 6, 2017
