Police have named the man responsible for the attack on Westminster that killed three people, including a police officer, and injured 40.
Scotland Yard say the attacker was 52-year-old Khalid Masood.
Was he known to the police?
Khalid Masood has been formally identifed by police as the man responsible for the #WestminsterAttack in #London
— Metropolitan Police (@metpoliceuk) March 23, 2017
Masood was known to police before the Westminster attack. He had previous convictions for assaults, GBH, possession of offensive weapons and public order offences. His first conviction was in November 1983 for criminal damage and his last conviction was in December 2003 for possession of a knife. And he was also known by a number of aliases, the Metropolitan Police said.
Had he been convicted of any terrorism offences?
No, he had not been convicted for anything terrorism related.But he had been investigated by MI5 over violent extremism some years ago. Theresa May told MPs in the Commons that he was a “peripheral” figure but was “not part of the current intelligence picture”.She said: “The case is historic. He was not part of the current intelligence picture. There was no prior intelligence of his intent or of the plot.”
Was he British?
He was born in Kent and police believe he had most recently been living in the West Midlands.Police raided a flat in Birmingham, as it emerged that the car Masood had used in the attack, a Hyundai 4×4, was hired from a branch of car hire firm Enterprise in Spring Hill, Birmingham.At the scene of one of the police raids, a flat in Hagley Road, Birmingham, one witness said: “The man from London lived here.”
Was he in contact with ISIS?
It’s not clear yet whether or not he’d had any contact with members of the terror group abroad, but Islamic State has claimed the British-born attacker was one of its “soldiers”.But the group has a record of opportunistically claiming attacks and commentators said it was significant that the statement did not appear to claim it had directed the strike.
