MI5 Was Warned Attacker Youssef Zaghba ‘Wanted to Be a Terrorist’

Youssef Zaghba, 22, was arrested on his way to Syria where he planned to fight for Isis but MI5 ignored Italian warningsMETROPOLITAN POLICE

MI5 ignored a warning from Italian police that the youngest of the London Bridge attackers “wanted to be a terrorist” and had Islamic State material on his phone, it was claimed yesterday.

Youssef Zaghba, 22, one of three men who carried out Saturday night’s atrocity, was able to get into the UK despite being arrested last year on his way to Syria where he planned to fight for Isis.

The Italian authorities said he was on a terror watchlist and information had been uploaded to a database shared with Britain. It raises further questions for MI5 over its failure to prevent the van and knife rampage that left seven people dead and dozens injured.

Zaghba, an Italian citizen of Moroccan descent, is thought to have lived in Ilford, east London, since 2015. The Home Office refused to comment on whether he had flown from the UK when he was stopped at Bologna airport in March 2016 while trying to take a flight to Turkey en route to Syria.

Giuseppe Amato, the Bologna magistrate, said he “told [an] official he wanted to be a terrorist”, while a source confirmed he had Isis material on his phone. He was released and details of the case were uploaded to a terror database accessed by MI5, Italian officials said. He was never made a “subject of interest” by police or MI5, however.


A security source told The Times that pan-European databases were not being used to their potential, particularly by the UK. Some European intelligence was treated with scepticism by Britain, the source added.

It also emerged that Zaghba’s fellow Moroccan, Rachid Redouane, 30, had been refused UK asylum but was in the country on an Irish visa after marrying a British woman in Dublin in 2012.

The third attacker, Khuram Butt, 27, a Pakistan-born gym worker from Barking, east London, is believed to have sparked a violent altercation during a Muslim celebration in January, leading to his arrest and a caution.

The prime minister is said to be “furious” that Butt was under investigation by the security services. He featured in a documentary last year called The Jihadis Next Door. “She is extremely angry,” a source said. “The methods by which MI5 decide who is a threat and who isn’t have to be looked at urgently.”

MI5 will be told to overhaul its system for assessing suspects if Theresa May wins the election. Last night she announced a new control order to restrict the movement of terror suspects.

London Bridge was the third attack in ten weeks by someone known to police and the intelligence agencies. This morning police arrested a 30-year-old man after a raid in Ilford, east London, on suspicion of the “commission, preparation or instigation” of terrorist acts.