Police release images of knives, van used in London attack, make new arrest

Images of distinctive pink knives used during the London Bridge terrorist attack on June 3 were released on Saturday by Metropolitan Police detectives. One other suspect linked to the attack was arrested in the early hours of Saturday.

The ceramic pink knives were found on or nearby the three attackers – Khuram Shazad Butt, Rachid Redouane and Youssef Zaghba – after police shot them dead at approximately on Saturday, 3 June. The kitchen knives, each measuring 12 inches, are branded Ernesto and are ceramic, rather than metal.

The attackers had wound duct tape around the handles and in Butt’s case, a leather strap had been attached to the handle and was hung around his wrist. It is this knife that police have released images of today.

“We’ve been working round the clock to understand what these men did in the lead-up to the attack but we need to know more about these unusual knives. Where have they come from? Where might the attackers have bought them from?” Commander Dean Haydon, head of the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command, said.

He urged members of the public that know anything about these particular types of knives to call the police.

Detectives also released images of the white Renault van, registration plate number HN66 TKX, used by the three men to carry out the attack.

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The attackers first drove southbound onto London Bridge at 21.28hrs. They drove off the bridge turned round and drove back, northbound up the bridge again. Once at the north end, the attackers did a U-turn and drove back southbound, fatally and purposely driving into pedestrians as they did so. They then crashed into railings outside the Barrowboy and Banker pub. Here, the men abandoned the van and ran off to Borough Market where they began to stab members of the public.

Counter terrorism officers have so far spoken to 262 people from 19 different countries. Of these, 78 are significant witnesses.

Detectives investigating the London Bridge terror attack carried out a warrant, and made a further arrest, in east London in the early hours of Saturday, 10 June. At 02:05hrs officers from the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command, supported by the Territorial Support Group, arrested a 28-year-old man at a residential address in Barking.

He was arrested on suspicion of being concerned in the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism under Section 41 of the Terrorism Act 2000.

He has been taken into custody at a police station in Berkshire and is detained under the Terrorism Act. Six other men remain in custody, according to Police.

Eight people were killed and 48 were injured, including four unarmed police officers, after three men drove a van into pedestrians on London Bridge. Wielding knives, the men then left the van and went to the nearby Borough Market area, where they stabbed people in and around restaurants and pubs.