A man shot dead by the Scotland Yard after he went on a stab frenzy on a busy high street in south London was a convicted Islamist terrorist, with family links to Sri Lanka, who was recently released from prison after serving half of his sentence period for preparation of acts of terrorism, police said.
The Metropolitan Police said Sudesh Mamoor Faraz Amman, a 20-year-old British national with extended family in Sri Lanka, had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State (ISIS).
In a statement in Arabic via its Amaq propaganda agency, the Islamic State on Monday claimed responsibility for the London attack and said Sudesh was a "fighter" with the group, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, a US-based monitoring firm which monitors jihadist activities.
Amman was sentenced to three years and four months in prison in December 2018 after being charged with 10 terror-related offences. He was aged 18 that time. He was released under licence last month. He was under surveillance.
"The suspect had been recently released from prison where he had been serving a sentence for Islamist-related terrorism offences. We are confident that this is an isolated incident that has been contained," said Met Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner Lucy D'Orsi on Sunday night.
Of the 10 offences under which Amman was jailed, seven were of making records of information likely to be useful to a person committing -or preparing an act of terrorism and three of dissemination of terrorist publications.