Westminster terror attacker: Police name West Midlands man

The Westminster terror attacker who killed three people including a police officer before being shot dead has been named as Khalid Masood.

The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) said Masood was not the subject of any current investigations and there was “no prior intelligence about his intent to mount a terrorist attack”.

However, he was known to police and had a range of previous convictions for assaults, including GBH, possession of offensive weapons and public order offences.

Masood, 52, was born in Kent and detectives believe he was most recently living in the West Midlands.

He was also known by a number of aliases, the MPS said.

Masood`s first conviction was in November 1983 for criminal damage and his last conviction was in December 2003 for possession of a knife.

He has not been convicted for any terrorism offences, the MPS added.

Prime Minister Theresa May told MPs on Thursday (March 23) the assailant, shot dead as he attacked officers in the shadow of Big Ben, had been investigated some years ago but was considered to be a “peripheral figure” and had fallen off the intelligence radar.

“His case was historic. He was not part of the current intelligence picture,” she added.

Police Constable Keith Palmer, a member of the MPS` Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Command, teacher Aysha Frade and American Kurt Cochran were killed on Wednesday afternoon (March 22) when a lone attacker mowed down pedestrians crossing Westminster Bridge before stabbing an officer to death at the gates of the Palace of Westminster.

Eight arrests have now been confirmed as forces across the UK widen the search for suspects following the London attack.

Four of those arrests are believed to have been in Birmingham.

The focus of investigation appeared to switch to the West Midlands after officers searched a second flat in Birmingham in the early hours of Thursday in connection with yesterday`s terrorist attacks.

Armed police initially raided a second-floor flat above a Persian restaurant in Hagley Road, Ladywood around 11pm on Wednesday.

Seven of the 40 people injured are still in hospital in a critical condition. Twenty-nine had been treated in hospital, a MPS spokesperson said this morning.