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The three terrorists who killed eight people after driving a van into pedestrians on London Bridge and then attacking nearby revellers had initially tried to hire a 7.5-tonne truck, the head of the UK capital's counter-terrorism unit has said.
Commander Dean Haydon also revealed the men had a stockpile of petrol bombs in the back of their van and carried out their deadly attack with pink ceramic knives. Officers also discovered a Koran in their safe house, opened at a page on martyrdom.
The discoveries, especially of the plan to hire a truck, suggested more could have been killed.
"Getting hold of a 7.5-tonne lorry — the effects could have been even worse," Commander Haydon told reporters.
Although Islamic State militants have claimed responsibility for the attack, Commander Haydon said there was no evidence the attackers — Pakistani-born Briton Khuram Butt, Italian Youssef Zaghba and Rachid Redouane who had links to Libya, Morocco and Ireland — were directed by anyone else, either in Britain or abroad.
"We're not looking for a wider network," he said, adding that officers were still trying to piece together how the three men had met.
"How did they know each other? They are a diverse bunch," he said.
Commander Haydon provided unusually extensive details of last Saturday's attack, the deadliest in London since suicide bombers killed 52 people on the city's transport network in 2005.
The details came as police arrested a 27-year-old man in Ilford in east London in connection to the investigation.
Officers from the Metropolitan Police Counter-Terrorism Command said the man was detained under the Terrorism Act on suspicion of being concerned in the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism.
Five other men remain in custody, while 12 alleged suspects arrested in the early stages of the investigation were released earlier this week without charge.
Terrorists used pink ceramic knives
On Saturday morning, Butt, who Commander Haydon said was believed to be the ringleader, tried to rent a 7.5-tonne truck but did not provided payment details.
It was not clear why he could not pay, or if he lacked the necessary licence to drive such a vehicle. But his attempt echoed last July's attack in Nice, France, when a 19-tonne truck was driven into crowds, killing 86 people.
The men were armed with identical 30-centimetre pink ceramic knives, strapped to their wrists with leather bound around the handle. They were also wearing fake suicide belts — plastic water bottles wrapped in duct tape.
In the attackers' van detectives found 13 wine bottles, filled with lighter fuel with rags wrapped round them to make Molotov cocktail petrol bombs. There were also two blow torches which Commander Haydon thought could have been used to light the homemade bombs as part of a possible secondary attack.
"They were still fairly close to the van. There is a possibility that they could have come back," he said.
There were also office chairs, a suitcase and two bags of gravel which Haydon said might have been to add weight or to act as a cover story for their activities to friends and family.
He said Redouane's home, an apartment in Barking, east London, was the men's safe house where they put their plot together and prepared the attack.
There they found an English-language copy of the Koran which had been left open on a page describing martyrdom, along with other items linked to their attack.
Commander Haydon said police were seeking to find out more about the "unusual knives".
"Where have they come from? Where might the attackers have bought them from? If you know anything about these particular types of knives, please let us know — it could prove a crucial lead in our investigation."
ABC/Reuters
Topics: law-crime-and-justice, crime, terrorism, united-kingdom
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