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British police name Khalid Khalid Masood as prepetrator    

LONDON: British police have identified a 52-year-old British man, Khalid Masood as the prepetrator of Westminster attack.   

Police investigating the deadliest terror attack to hit the United Kingdom in 12 years. As the inquiry into the atrocity gathered pace, Prime Minister Theresa May revealed the attacker was once linked to violent extremism. He was thought to have been inspired by Islamist ideology, she said.

In an address to the House of Commons, reconvened less than a day after it was placed in lockdown as the attack unfolded outside — May vowed that Britain’s freedoms and values would remain undiminished.

Four people died in the attack. An American man and a British woman of Spanish origin were killed when Masood rammed a rental car onto the sidewalk on Westminster Bridge. Masood then stabbed an unarmed police officer in as he stood guard at Carriage Gates, an entrance into a cobbled courtyard frequently used by Members of Parliament and staff. A fourth victim died Thursday night after his life support was withdrawn at a hospital.

An IS-affiliated news agency claimed that the extremist group was behind Wednesday’s outrage, which left 29 people requiring hospital treatment. Seven people remain critically ill, two of whom are in a life-threatening condition.

Khalid Masood had previous convictions for violence but not terrorism offenses, police said. London Mayor Sadiq Khan led tributes at a vigil at Trafalgar Square, near the scene of the attack. Queen Elizabeth II voices her “thoughts, prayers, and deepest sympathy” for all those affected.

In a defiant speech, May vowed that Britain would not be cowed by the attack. She said “Yesterday an act of terrorism tried to silence our democracy. But today we meet as normal — as generations have done before us, and as future generations will continue to do — to deliver a simple message: we are not afraid. And our resolve will never waver in the face of terrorism.”

“And we meet here, in the oldest of all Parliaments, because we know that democracy — and the values it entails — will always prevail,” May added. She said the police officer who was killed in the attack, PC Keith Palmer, was “every inch a hero and his actions will never be forgotten.”