London attack: Third assassin named as Youssef Zaghba

The third London Bridge attacker has been named as Youssef Zaghba, a 22-year-old son of an Italian mother and Moroccan father who was reportedly stopped at Bologna airport in 2016 bound for Syria via Turkey.

Police confirmed his identity after it was first reported in Italy. He was believed to be living in east London and is described as an Italian national of Moroccan descent.

According to reports in the Italian newspaper Corriere della Serra, Zaghba had recently been working in a restaurant in London. He was reported to have been on Italy's list of persons at risk.

UK police sources said he was not on the radar of counter-terrorism investigators in Britain, but the paper reported that Italian authorities had alerted British and Moroccan authorities about his frequent movements. Scotland Yard said in a statement: "The Met's counter-terrorism command has released the name and photograph of the third attacker shot dead by police following the terrorist attacks on London Bridge and at Borough Market on Saturday.

"While formal identification is yet to take place, detectives believe he is 22-year-old Youssef Zaghba, from east London. The deceased's family have been informed. He is believed to be an Italian national of Moroccan descent. He was not a police or MI5 subject of interest." Zaghba's parents reportedly lived in Morocco but then separated, at which point his mother settled in Bologna. He was stopped at Marconi airport in Bologna on 15 March 2016 travelling with only a backpack and a one-way ticket to Istanbul, the newspaper said. He had told his mother he was going to Rome, and he became agitated as soon as he was stopped and his passport and mobile were impounded. He had video and images of religious content on his phone, but nothing significant in terms of jihadi fundamentalism, the paper reported. He was interrogated but was ultimately released. An Italian official confirmed to the Guardian that Italian authorities alerted their British counterparts when Zaghba moved to London.

According to another Italian newspaper, La Repubblica, the material on his phone was propaganda videos and religious sermons that confirmed his wish to join Islamic State.

The paper reported that a review court, known as the Tribunale del Riesame, decided there was insufficient evidence of terrorism to charge him, but the Italian security services sent an alert to London with the information gathered from the mobile phone and from other checks carried out in Bologna, understood to have included searches of his mother's home.

On Monday, the Metropolitan police's counter-terrorism command said it knew the identity of all three attackers, but said: "Inquiries are ongoing to confirm the identity of their accomplice. There are international issues on that one which is why it is taking is longer." Zaghba's fellow attackers were named as Khuram Butt, a 27-year old Pakistan-born British citizen, and Rachid Redouane, 30, a Moroccan-Libyan pastry chef.

The identification of the third attacker came as detectives arrested a man at an address in Barking on Tuesday morning. The 27-year old was arrested under the Terrorism Act just after 8am. A search warrant is also being executed at an address in Barking.

Meanwhile, plain clothes officers in Pakistan have searched the former family home of Khuram Butt and questioned one of his uncles. The officers - believed to be from Pakistan's all-powerful Inter Service Intelligence agency, which is Pakistan's answer to M15 - visited the house in Butt's home village of Mujahidabad, around 60 miles south east of the capital, Islamabad. Butt, one of the three terrorists involved in Saturday's knife rampage at London Bridge, was raised in Britain but spent his very early years in Pakistan. Dozens of officers also searched a restaurant in the nearby city of Jhelum, ten minutes' drive from Mujahidabad, which is thought to belong to Nasir Dar, a local businessman who is an uncle of Butt.

Butt's late father, Saif, is believed to have owned a furniture shop in Jhelum before emigrating to the UK in 1988 with his family. Butt's father, Saif, had sold it back in 2006 to another family who have no connection to them.

The military claims the anti-terror operations have made Pakistan much less attractive as a training ground for British jihadi volunteers - especially compared to Syria, which is much closer to Europe. But experts say some threats still remain.