London attack: Westminster suspect identified as Adrian Russell Ajao
The East London mosque, which is the oldest in the capital and the largest in the UK, issued a statement, saying, “Such heinous acts of mindless violence must not be allowed to cause division and hatred among our communities, rather we must remain united and stand in solidarity with all”.
The six released “fully co-operated with officers working on the investigation”, West Midlands Police said. Police also said they seized more than 2,700 items, which includes “massive amounts of computer data”.
Detailed police analysis reveals that Masood’s attack started last Wednesday at (GMT) 14:40:08 on the Westminster Bridge, when he drove his marauding vehicle on the pavement full of people, killing three people and leaving many injured, some critically.
PC Keith Palmer was killed outside of Parliament.
The other victims were 43-year-old Londoner Aysha Frade, 54-year-old USA tourist Kurt Cochran, and 75-year-old Leslie Rhodes who died on Thursday night.
People lay flowers as a tribute to the victims of Wednesday’s attack outside the Houses of Parliament, after police cordon was removed in central London, Thursday March 23, 2017.
“To me this is something quite common over the last couple of years, over the terrorist attacks in Europe, that ISIL jumps on the bandwagon in the most horrific way and says “yeah, this our soldier”, when there’s actually no link between the person carrying out the attack and any particular group”, he told Al Jazeera.
Two more “significant arrests” have been made in connection with the Westminster attack, police said on Friday.
Irishwoman injured Among the injured was an Irishwoman who was being treated in hospital for “non-life-threatening injuries”.
Police made two more “significant” arrests overnight – a27-year-old man in Birmingham and a 35-year-old man in Manchester – while a 32-year-old woman was arrested on Friday morning in Manchester.
Masood was known to police for previous convictions, but none of them are terror-related.
British Prime Minister Theresa May told Parliament that Masood had been previously known to MI5, Britain’s security service: “Some years ago, he was once investigated in relation to concerns about violent extremism”.
The manager of a hotel in the beachside city of Brighton where Masood attacker stayed the night before the incident said he seemed unusually outgoing and mentioned details about his family, including having a sick father.
Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis said terrorists “seek to divide us”.
“We are all connected and today we showed that by coming together, by going to work, by getting about our normal business, because the terrorists will not defeat us”.