British police today named the third of the jihadis who killed seven people in a knife and van attack in London, and an Italian newspaper said he had been flagged to Britain as a possible militant by Italian authorities.
The fallout from the attack has eclipsed other issues in the political campaign ahead of Thursday's parliamentary election, with both the ruling Conservatives and opposition Labour Party battling to defend their records on security.
In particular, the revelation that at least one of the attackers, Khuram Butt, was well known to security services has raised concerns that they lack the resources to prevent attacks.
British police said the third assailant was Youssef Zaghba, 22, and that he had not been a subject of interest for them or the MI5 domestic intelligence agency.
But Italy's Corriere della Sera reported that Zaghba had been stopped at Bologna airport in 2016 when trying to fly to Syria via Turkey, and that Italian authorities had identified him as a potential "foreign fighter" and tipped off Britain about his movements.
Butt, a 27-year-old British national born in Pakistan, had appeared in a British TV documentary called "The Jihadis Next Door".
Saturday night's rampage, in which Butt, Zaghba and Rachid Redouane drove into pedestrians on London Bridge before slitting throats and stabbing people in the bustling Borough Market area, was Britain's third Islamist attack in as many months.
Less than two weeks earlier, a suicide bomber had killed 22 adults and children at a pop concert in Manchester and, in March, five people died after a car was driven into pedestrians on London's Westminster Bridge.
Police had already named Butt and Redouane, a 30-year-old who claimed to be Moroccan and Libyan. An Italian investigative source said Zaghba was a Moroccan-Italian whose mother lived in the northern Italian city of Bologna.
All three men were shot dead at the scene of the attack by officers within eight minutes of police receiving the first emergency call.
The first of the dead to be named were Canadian Christine Archibald and Britons James McMullan and Kirsty Boden. The 48 injured included people from Britain, France, Spain, Australia and New Zealand.
Boden's family issued a statement today, saying she had been a nurse and had tried to help the injured:
"As she ran towards danger, in an effort to help people on the bridge, Kirsty sadly lost her life."
A nationwide minute of silence was held at 11 am to honour all the victims.
The investigation into Saturday's attack continued, with police searching an address in Ilford, east London, in the early hours today.
Police arrested 12 people on Sunday in Barking, also in the east of the city, where both Butt and Redouane lived, but released all of them without charge.
One of Butt's neighbours, Ikenna Chigbo, told Reuters he had chatted with Butt – known locally as "Abz" – just hours before the attack on Saturday and said he appeared "almost euphoric".
"He was very sociable, seemed like an ordinary family man. He would always bring his kid out into the lobby," said Chigbo.
Police said they had to prioritise resources on suspects who were believed to be preparing an attack or providing active support for one. Butt did not fall into that category when they last investigated him.