London Bridge attacker had 'twice been reported to police' for extremist views

A friend and neighbour both said they had alerted authorities before Saturday's attack.

One of the three men involved in the terror incident that killed seven and wounded dozens in central London had been reported to police over his extremist views, according to reports.

A friend of the attacker, who is not being named at the request of the police, told BBC Asian Network that he had contacted authorities after realising the man had extremist views, while a neighbour had said she had reported him after he had attempted to radicalise her children.

Erica Gasparri said she had alerted Barking police to the man after her child came home from the park and said "Mummy I want to become a Muslim" after speaking to the man, the Telegraph reported.

She said police told her the information was passed on but did not hear anything further.

The friend said that the man, who was reportedly born in Pakistan but raised in the UK, had been watching videos of an American hate preacher named Ahmad Musa Jibril and that when they had spoken about an attack he had justified it, "that day I realised I needed to contact the authorities."

The friend said that the man was not arrested after he contacted the police and even said "the authorities did not do their bit." Some 12 people have been detained after police raids in Barking on Sunday (4 June).

Seven people are dead and 48 injured after the attack on Saturday night which saw three man swerve off the road near London Bridge and into pedestrians before stabbing at people indiscriminately in Borough Market.

Police have been hailed for their response to the attack, with all three men reportedly shot dead by armed police eight minutes after the first call to 999.

Isis has claimed responsibility for the attack, with the SITE intelligence group saying that the militant group's news service said "a security unit of Islamic State fighters carried out the London attacks yesterday" on the Telegram messaging app.

The group have previously claimed attacks both organised by them and when attackers are just influenced by their ideology.