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Police searching for a French man who has been missing since the London Bridge attack say they have recovered a body from the River Thames.
Key points:
- If confirmed, Xavier Thomas will be eighth person killed in vehicle and knife attack
- He was walking with his girlfriend over the bridge when the attack began on Saturday
- Witness accounts suggested he might have been thrown into the river
The Metropolitan Police said the body was found on Tuesday downstream from the bridge. The force says formal identification has not yet taken place, but Xavier Thomas' next of kin have been informed.
In a statement, police said the death toll in the vehicle and knife attack had risen to eight. Almost 50 were wounded.
Mr Thomas, 45, was walking with his girlfriend over the bridge when the attack began on Saturday night.
Police said earlier that witness accounts suggested he might have been thrown into the river. His girlfriend was struck and seriously injured by the van.
French President Emmanuel Macron said a third French victim had been identified among those killed in the stabbing and van attacks in London, but he did not name the victim. He said eight other French citizens were injured in the attacks.
Early on Wednesday police arrested a 30-year-old man in east London in connection to the attack and are searching his home.
Meanwhile, Spain has urged British authorities to speed up the identification of the dead and wounded in the London Bridge attacks.
Spanish national Ignacio Echeverria, who worked in the British capital, was last seen lying on the floor near London Bridge after he confronted assailants with a skateboard.
Interior Minister Juan Ignacio Zoido said he found it strange that the identification was taking so long.
May urged to call for tougher laws
Two men are now in custody on suspicion of violating the Terrorism Act. They have not been identified or charged. All others who had been arrested have been released without facing charges.
London officials said a large part of the outer cordon of the crime scene had reopened. Borough Market, a popular gathering place, remains closed as more evidence is gathered.
The attack, and prior attacks in Manchester and near Parliament in London, have prompted Prime Minister Theresa May to call for tougher counterterrorism laws even if it means changing human rights protections.
Reaction to the attack has dominated the final days of campaigning before Thursday's general election, with opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn and others criticising Ms May for cutting police numbers by roughly 20,000 during her tenure as home secretary.
In the Saturday night rampage, the attackers first drove a rented van into a crowd and then jumped out and randomly stabbed people they encountered. Police killed all three attackers.
At least two of the men were known to British intelligence and law-enforcement officials, raising questions about whether anything could have been done to prevent the assault.
Police have named the attackers as Khurum Butt, 27, who had been known for his extremist views, Rachid Redouane, 30, and Youssef Zaghba — a 22-year-old Italian national of Moroccan descent who was reportedly working in a London restaurant.
Italian authorities said Zaghba had been stopped and questioned in Italy but had not been charged with any crime. Italian officials said suspicions about him had been shared with British authorities.
Zaghba's mother said her son was always very hard on himself, never measuring up to his own rigid expectations, and had become radicalised in the last year while living in London.
Valeria Collina, a Muslim convert, said Zaghba had wanted to go to Syria to start a family, not to fight, since he had believed that he could find "pure Islam" there.
She told reporters on Wednesday he had changed in the last year.
"When I went to England he was a bit more rigid but not so much. But from his face, from his look, I could tell there had been a radicalisation, as they say. And this happened in England," she said.
AP
Topics: unrest-conflict-and-war, terrorism, police-sieges, crime, law-crime-and-justice, england
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