LONDON: The carnage of the London Bridge attack could have been worse: One of the attackers tried to rent a larger truck that could have killed more people, but his payment was declined. The bloodthirsty gang was also shot dead before they could make their way back to the van where their petrol bombs were stored.
In a rare glimpse into the weeklong investigation, police released details on Saturday that showed Khuram Butt originally tried to rent a 7.5-ton truck. The intended truck was smaller but similar to the one used in the Nice attack last year that killed 86 people and injured hundreds in the resort town in the south of France.
After his payment was declined, Butt and his two accomplices rented a smaller van that they used to plow into crowds before they leapt from the vehicle and went on a stabbing rampage in an attack that left eight people dead and nearly 50 people injured. It was the third such deadly attack in Britain in three months.
After leaving the small white van, the men used 12-inch knives with bright pink blades, according to Dean Haydon, head of the Metropolitan Police’s Counter-Terrorism Command.
Police also disclosed that multiple petrol bombs were discovered in the van, and a copy of the Qur’an opened at a page “describing martyrdom” was found at one of the attackers’ houses.
Investigators believe three victims were killed on the bridge, including one man who was thrown into the Thames River, before the attackers left the vehicle and stabbed five people to death around London’s busy Borough Market, Haydon said. Police believe Butt was driving the van.
“When I come back to Butt trying to get hold of a 7.5-ton lorry — the effect could have been even worse,” he said.
More than a dozen wine bottles filled with flammable liquid and rags wrapped around them in the shape of Molotov cocktails were found in the van. Two blowtorches were also found.
Haydon said the men may have been planning even more bloodshed if they made it back to the van.
Police also found a number of office chairs, gravel and a suitcase in the van.
Detectives believe the gravel may have been placed in the vehicle to make it heavier, or as part of a cover to justify hiring it, while the chairs may have been used to convince family and friends they were moving furniture.
Butt, a 27-year-old Pakistan-born British citizen, and his two accomplices, Rachid Redouane, 30, who claimed to be Moroccan-Libyan, and Youssef Zaghba, a 22-year-old Italian national of Moroccan descent, were shot dead by armed police eight minutes after the first emergency call.
The three attackers were wearing fake suicide belts consisting of plastic water bottles wrapped in gray duct tape.
Haydon described the pink knives as “pretty unusual” and appealed for anyone with information about where they came from to contact police.
Police raided Redouane’s small residence on Tuesday and said he had been renting it since April. This was the safe house where the attack was planned, police said. In the residence, police said they found an English-language copy of the Qur’an opened at a page describing martyrdom, pieces of cloth which appeared to match material wrapped around the petrol bombs and water bottles similar to those used in the fake suicide vests. Luggage straps, plastic retractable craft knives and rolls of duct tape were also found.
Eighteen people have been arrested in connection with last week’s attack. All but five have been released. Searches are continuing.
The question remains how the men met and knew one another but police said Saturday they did not suspect a wider plot.
“It looks as if it is pretty much a contained plot involving the three of them, which is supported by the forensic evidence we’ve got back so far,” Haydon said.
Butt, who police consider the attack ringleader, had been on bail after being arrested for fraud in a case in October, police said. He had also been repeatedly reported to police for violent behavior and trying to recruit young children to the Daesh group as well as featuring in the documentary, “The Jihadis Next Door,” where he was seen next to a group of men unfurling a black-and-white flag scrawled with Arabic script and associated with the Daesh group.
“There was no evidence uncovered of any attack-planning in relation to him,” Haydon said.
Butt had been warned by police on two occasions — once for fraud in 2008 and once in 2010 for assault. Still, he did not have any criminal convictions.
Zaghba and Redouane had no criminal convictions or such warnings in Britain.
“From what I’m seeing, there is nothing that suggests at the moment that we got that wrong,” Haydon said, referring to Butt.
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London Bridge attacker tried to rent larger truck
London Bridge attacker tried to rent larger truck
Karachi mall inferno came after ignored warnings, delayed response
KARACHI: Muhammad Imran did not take the fire seriously at first, thinking it was another small spark at the Karachi mall that would be quickly extinguished by fellow shop owners.
But smoke seeped through ducts and blackened the air in seconds. The lights went out soon after and phone flashlights turned useless, people could no longer see their own hands, he said.
Imran, who has diabetes and has undergone heart surgery, managed only a few steps before nearly giving up. “It felt like doomsday,” he said. “You couldn’t see the person next to you.”
The blaze would rage for nearly two days and reduce Gul Plaza, a multi-story complex of 1,200 family-run shops selling children’s clothes, toys, crockery and household goods, to ash.
At least 67 people were killed, with 15 still missing and feared dead, police official Asad Ali Raza said, in the January 17 blaze, the Pakistani port city’s largest in over a decade.
Imran’s escape from the inferno, along with more than a dozen others who spoke to Reuters, was hampered by locked doors, poor ventilation, and crowded corridors. When they eventually got out, the survivors watched Gul Plaza crumble as rescue efforts faced delays and poor resources.
Police said the fire appeared to have started at an artificial flower shop and may have been caused by children playing with matches. They added that all but three of the 16 exits were locked, which was routine practice after 10 p.m.
Documents reviewed by Reuters showed Gul Plaza, located on a major artery in Karachi’s historic city center and built in the early 1980s, had violated building regulatory standards for over a decade, with authorities warning the situation was dire in the last review two years ago.
Gul Plaza’s management did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
LONG PAPER TRAIL
Records from the provincial Sindh Building Control Authority showed court cases filed over Gul Plaza’s lack of safety compliance in 1992, 2015 and 2021, as well as records of unauthorized construction.
The files reviewed by Reuters do not detail the outcomes of those cases, including whether fines were imposed or whether violations were fully remedied. SBCA did not respond to queries on enforcement action taken.
A Nov. 27, 2023, survey by the fire department, covering more than 40 commercial buildings in the area, cited inadequate firefighting equipment, blocked escape routes, faulty alarms, poor emergency lighting and a lack of fire safety training for occupants and staff.
A follow-up audit by the fire department in January 2024 placed Gul Plaza among buildings that failed to meet regulations, with inspectors marking key safety categories, including access to firefighting equipment, alarm systems and electrical wiring conditions, as “unsatisfactory.”
Separately, documents describing inspections by Karachi’s Urban Search and Rescue teams in late 2023 and early 2024 that were reviewed by Reuters also showed Gul Plaza was among several markets and commercial buildings flagged for deficiencies in one or more fire safety categories.
’PEOPLE WERE PANICKING’
“Young boys were crying. People were panicking,” Imran said, when they were confronted by locked exits.
Others smashed doors and locks as they moved through the darkness, holding hands and forming human chains to avoid getting lost.
With no way down, they ran to the roof, where 70 people, including families and children, were trapped for nearly an hour, survivors said. The smoke was even worse there, funnelled upward by the building’s design, making it impossible to see even the neighboring buildings.
Then the wind changed.
A sudden gust pushed the smoke aside, revealing Rimpa Plaza next door. Young men crossed first, found a broken ladder and began ferrying people across one by one.
“I was the last to leave. I wanted to make sure everyone was safe,” Imran said. An ambulance from the Edhi Foundation charity was waiting on the other side.
WATCHED IT BURN
Many survivors said the response by the fire brigade was delayed and inadequate. Imran and other shop owners said they had escaped from the building and watched Gul Plaza turn into a molten inferno as the first firefighters arrived.
The first emergency call came at 10:26 p.m. from a teenager, with two fire vehicles reaching the site within 10 minutes and classifying the blaze as a Grade 3 fire, “the highest category for an urban area,” said a provincial government spokesperson Sukhdev Assardas Hemnani.
A citywide emergency was declared by 10:45 p.m., triggering the mobilization of resources from across Karachi, he said.
Shopkeepers said the first engine soon ran out of water and left to refill but Hemnani said those allegations were inaccurate.
Firefighters used “water, foam, chemicals and sand,” he said, adding the blaze was difficult to control because the building contained more than 50 gas cylinders and flammable material such as perfumes, generator fuel and car batteries.
Many of the shops were stocked to the brim because of the holy month of Ramadan in February-March, Pakistan’s biggest shopping season.
The first fire truck was not delayed, Hemnani said, but later arrivals were slowed by heavy traffic on a busy Saturday night and a crowd of over 3,000 people that had gathered outside the mall.
The fire department did not respond to requests for comment.
’NO LONGER AMONG US’
Survivors said many of the missing were shop employees and traders who tried to help others escape — or went back inside looking for family members.
Abdul Ghaffar, a toy store employee who had worked in Gul Plaza for two decades, said one of his cousins was among those still unaccounted for after helping others flee.
His cousin’s mobile phone voice message, in which he can be heard apologizing to his family, was circulated widely on social media.
“He was helping people escape,” Ghaffar said. “That’s how he died.” Three other relatives remain missing, he said, with the family still waiting for identification through DNA testing.
Several shopkeepers said the losses have scarred the market’s tightly knit community.
“All of this keeps replaying in front of my eyes. People we saw daily are no longer among us. God was kind to us — our lives were saved — but I still cannot understand what kind of fire this was,” said Imran.
But smoke seeped through ducts and blackened the air in seconds. The lights went out soon after and phone flashlights turned useless, people could no longer see their own hands, he said.
Imran, who has diabetes and has undergone heart surgery, managed only a few steps before nearly giving up. “It felt like doomsday,” he said. “You couldn’t see the person next to you.”
The blaze would rage for nearly two days and reduce Gul Plaza, a multi-story complex of 1,200 family-run shops selling children’s clothes, toys, crockery and household goods, to ash.
At least 67 people were killed, with 15 still missing and feared dead, police official Asad Ali Raza said, in the January 17 blaze, the Pakistani port city’s largest in over a decade.
Imran’s escape from the inferno, along with more than a dozen others who spoke to Reuters, was hampered by locked doors, poor ventilation, and crowded corridors. When they eventually got out, the survivors watched Gul Plaza crumble as rescue efforts faced delays and poor resources.
Police said the fire appeared to have started at an artificial flower shop and may have been caused by children playing with matches. They added that all but three of the 16 exits were locked, which was routine practice after 10 p.m.
Documents reviewed by Reuters showed Gul Plaza, located on a major artery in Karachi’s historic city center and built in the early 1980s, had violated building regulatory standards for over a decade, with authorities warning the situation was dire in the last review two years ago.
Gul Plaza’s management did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
LONG PAPER TRAIL
Records from the provincial Sindh Building Control Authority showed court cases filed over Gul Plaza’s lack of safety compliance in 1992, 2015 and 2021, as well as records of unauthorized construction.
The files reviewed by Reuters do not detail the outcomes of those cases, including whether fines were imposed or whether violations were fully remedied. SBCA did not respond to queries on enforcement action taken.
A Nov. 27, 2023, survey by the fire department, covering more than 40 commercial buildings in the area, cited inadequate firefighting equipment, blocked escape routes, faulty alarms, poor emergency lighting and a lack of fire safety training for occupants and staff.
A follow-up audit by the fire department in January 2024 placed Gul Plaza among buildings that failed to meet regulations, with inspectors marking key safety categories, including access to firefighting equipment, alarm systems and electrical wiring conditions, as “unsatisfactory.”
Separately, documents describing inspections by Karachi’s Urban Search and Rescue teams in late 2023 and early 2024 that were reviewed by Reuters also showed Gul Plaza was among several markets and commercial buildings flagged for deficiencies in one or more fire safety categories.
’PEOPLE WERE PANICKING’
“Young boys were crying. People were panicking,” Imran said, when they were confronted by locked exits.
Others smashed doors and locks as they moved through the darkness, holding hands and forming human chains to avoid getting lost.
With no way down, they ran to the roof, where 70 people, including families and children, were trapped for nearly an hour, survivors said. The smoke was even worse there, funnelled upward by the building’s design, making it impossible to see even the neighboring buildings.
Then the wind changed.
A sudden gust pushed the smoke aside, revealing Rimpa Plaza next door. Young men crossed first, found a broken ladder and began ferrying people across one by one.
“I was the last to leave. I wanted to make sure everyone was safe,” Imran said. An ambulance from the Edhi Foundation charity was waiting on the other side.
WATCHED IT BURN
Many survivors said the response by the fire brigade was delayed and inadequate. Imran and other shop owners said they had escaped from the building and watched Gul Plaza turn into a molten inferno as the first firefighters arrived.
The first emergency call came at 10:26 p.m. from a teenager, with two fire vehicles reaching the site within 10 minutes and classifying the blaze as a Grade 3 fire, “the highest category for an urban area,” said a provincial government spokesperson Sukhdev Assardas Hemnani.
A citywide emergency was declared by 10:45 p.m., triggering the mobilization of resources from across Karachi, he said.
Shopkeepers said the first engine soon ran out of water and left to refill but Hemnani said those allegations were inaccurate.
Firefighters used “water, foam, chemicals and sand,” he said, adding the blaze was difficult to control because the building contained more than 50 gas cylinders and flammable material such as perfumes, generator fuel and car batteries.
Many of the shops were stocked to the brim because of the holy month of Ramadan in February-March, Pakistan’s biggest shopping season.
The first fire truck was not delayed, Hemnani said, but later arrivals were slowed by heavy traffic on a busy Saturday night and a crowd of over 3,000 people that had gathered outside the mall.
The fire department did not respond to requests for comment.
’NO LONGER AMONG US’
Survivors said many of the missing were shop employees and traders who tried to help others escape — or went back inside looking for family members.
Abdul Ghaffar, a toy store employee who had worked in Gul Plaza for two decades, said one of his cousins was among those still unaccounted for after helping others flee.
His cousin’s mobile phone voice message, in which he can be heard apologizing to his family, was circulated widely on social media.
“He was helping people escape,” Ghaffar said. “That’s how he died.” Three other relatives remain missing, he said, with the family still waiting for identification through DNA testing.
Several shopkeepers said the losses have scarred the market’s tightly knit community.
“All of this keeps replaying in front of my eyes. People we saw daily are no longer among us. God was kind to us — our lives were saved — but I still cannot understand what kind of fire this was,” said Imran.
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