Yahoo News Khalid Masood: London 'isn't like it used to be', terrorist 'told hotel staff' before carrying out Westminster attack
Khalid Masood reportedly told hotel staff that London “isn’t like it used to be”, hours before carrying out the terror attack at Westminster on Wednesday,
The 52-year-old, described as "nice and polite", spent his last night at a budget hotel near Brighton, The Sun reported, telling workers: "I’m off to London today".
Police reportedly investigated the Preston Park Hotel on Wednesday night after discovering a receipt in Masood's Hyundai, which he used to ram into pedestrians, killing three and injuring dozens more.
Masood, who was born in Kent and was originally called Adrian Elms, was shot dead after fatally stabbing Pc Keith Palmer, who was guarding the Houses of Parliament.
How the Westminster attack unfolded
Officers swept room 228, in which he had stayed, for clues and took CCTV footage from the hotel, where rooms are said to cost £59 a night.
A source told The Sun that Masood had chatted to staff and guests normally before checking out, saying he was “off to London today”.
"No one knows why he came. He used a credit card with the name Masood to check in on Tuesday at 11.30am," the source told the newspaper.
“Police traced him to the hotel because he got a receipt and left it in the car. It was definitely the car he used in the attack because that was parked in the car park when he stayed here. It was a hire car.
“He was very English but mixed race with a big beard.
“He said he lived above a guitar shop in Birmingham but he’s not originally from the Midlands and had a London accent. But he said London wasn’t like what it used to be. Police told us later it was definitely the Westminster attacker.”
According to The Sun, Masood stayed at the hotel on Friday night, checked out the following morning, then checked back in on Tuesday for one more night.
"Everyone says he was nice and polite and acted totally normal," the source was quoted as saying.
Police are investigating where Masood visited between his stays at the hotel. On Monday or Tuesday, he turned up at the car hire company Enterprise at its Spring Hill depot in Birmingham and rented the Hyundai SUV used in the attack.
Masood's “violent extremism” had caused security services sufficient alarm to put him under investigation as long as a decade ago.
But by the time he carried out the attack on Wednesday, the father of three was no longer considered a threat. Police have detailed his long history of violent crime. But none, they stressed, was for terrorism offences.
Over the past five or six years, Masood, his wife, aged 39, and their young children, have been on the move. Electoral roll records show him living in areas notorious for pockets of Islamist extremism.
Among the places he rented was a flat in Birmingham, which was also raided by police on Wednesday night.
Pictures have emerged of the six-bedroom apartment on Hagley Road, Edgbaston, where is believed to have lived until late last year.
One witness who works in a shop near the second-floor Birmingham flat told the Press Association: "The man from London lived here."
He added "They came and arrested three men."
A former neighbour of Masood spoke of her disbelief he could carry out such an atrocity.
Iwona Romek, speaking in Winson Green, Birmingham, said she could not believe her eyes when she realised the man who had lived near her was the same person responsible for the attack.
She said: "I am very surprised, I cannot believe it. Because when I saw him, I couldn't even see that he could do something like this.
"Now I'm scared that someone like that was living close to me."
She added: "I see pictures of him lying injured and from that picture I can see it's him. And my partner as well he has seen the picture, he is at work, and when I showed it him he said 'oh my God' it's him."
