The Islamic State group said Thursday one of its “soldiers” carried out the deadly rampage at the British parliament, as Prime Minister Theresa May vowed the nation would not be cowed by its deadliest attack in 12 years.
Police identified the assailant as 52-year-old Khalid Masood, a British-born man with a string of previous convictions but who was not subject to a current investigation, PUNCH reports.
The IS claim came after armed police arrested eight people in raids linked to Wednesday’s attack that left three people dead and sowed panic in the heart of London.
“The perpetrator of yesterday’s attack in front of the British parliament was a soldier of the Islamic State and the operation was carried out in response to calls to target coalition countries,” Amaq said citing a “security source.”
Police in London said there was “no prior intelligence about his intent to mount a terrorist attack.”
Britain is a member of the US-led coalition fighting IS in Iraq and Syria that the jihadist group has urged its followers to target.
The latest attack carried echoes of the atrocities in Nice and Berlin when trucks ploughed into crowds of people, killing 86 people in the French Riviera city in July and 12 at a market in the German capital just days before Christmas.
As the British flag over parliament flew at half-mast, lawmakers returned to “business as usual” in the surreal silence of an area in the heart of London normally thronged with tourists.
Hundreds of extra police were on patrol as officers worked around the clock to piece together what happened in the deadliest attack in Britain since four suicide bombers killed 52 people on London’s transport system in July 2005.
Wednesday’s attacker mowed down pedestrians with a car along Westminster Bridge — a busy traffic route and popular tourist spot with views of parliament and the Big Ben clock tower.
He then rammed the railings outside parliament and jumped out of the car, fatally stabbing a police officer before being shot dead.
The other victims were a 43-year-old British woman and an American in his 50s, while 29 people were treated in hospital including French school children and foreign tourists.
May said the attacker had been a “peripheral figure” investigated over concerns about violent extremism.
Pictures believed to be of the knifeman lying on a stretcher showed a burly man with black clothes and a beard.