'He was very friendly': Boss of hotel where London attacker Khalid Masood stayed the night before reveals killer spoke about his family

The manager of the hotel where Westminster killer Khalid Masood slept the night before his attack has described him as “very friendly”.

Sabeur Toumi said Masood - born Adrian Russell Ajao - checked into Brighton’s Preston Park Hotel at lunchtime on Tuesday, one day before he went on a bloody rampage outside Parliament, killing four people including a police officer.

“He was very friendly, a normal guest that we looked after,” said Mr Toumi, who revealed Masood had also spent a night at the budget hotel the previous Friday.

“He walked into the reception and he had a chat with my colleague about rates so I came out and met him and said hello to him and welcome to the hotel.

“He was very friendly, laughing and joking, telling us stories about where he lived.

Speaking to Sky News, Mr Toumi added: “He paid for his room and he went up very peacefully and I haven’t seen him after that.”

The manager said he found out what his guest had done when police came to visit the hotel with a picture of Masood.

Officers had reportedly found a receipt for his room in the car he drove through pedestrians on Westminster Bridge.

Mr Toumi said the revelation was “very, very shocking” and that his staff were “very upset”.

“These days you don’t know who are the bad ones and the good ones,” he added.

“He was just like any other guest who checks into the hotel. We had a brief conversation about where he came from in Birmingham.

“He talked about his family, his mum, his dad, his wife. He said his dad was ill and his mum was upset.

“He was normal. He was friendly, we spent five/ten minutes talking to him. He said ‘I’m visiting friends in Brighton’.”

Kent-born Masood, 52, is reported to have told staff at the hotel “London isn’t what it used to be” hours before he carried out Wednesday’s terror attack.

He told workers “I’m off to London today” before checking out on in the morning and driving to London in a hired Hyundai Tucson, the Sun reported.

Police swooped on room 228 of the hotel, which costs £59 a night, on the same day as the attack, which was London’s bloodiest terror incident since 7/7.

Masood killed four people - PC Keith Palmer, American Kurt Cochran, Spaniard Aysha Frade and 75-year-old Leslie Rhodes from Streatham - and injured dozens more.

He was reportedly also known as Adrian Elms, and is believed to have been an English teacher and father-of-three.

It is not known if Masood, 52, acted totally alone or was inspired by terrorist propaganda, the Met's acting deputy commissioner Mark Rowley said in a new statement on Friday morning.

Hundreds of officers are working on the counter-terrorism operation and are "determined" to find out if others are involved, he added.

Despite being born in Kent, Masood moved around and most recently lived in Birmingham.

He had been known to MI5 as a “peripheral figure”, Theresa May told the House of Commons this week.

But despite previous crimes, including being caught in 2003 with possession of a knife, the attacker had not previously been convicted on terrorism charges.

It is now thought at least 50 people were injured in the terror attack with 31 being hospitalised. Two people remain in a critical condition and one person is suffering from life-threatening injuries.