Previously imprisoned London Bridge attacker was reportedly wearing a GPS police tag

London Bridge.
(Image credit: NIKLAS HALLE'N/AFP via Getty Images)

Scotland Yard is trying to figure out how a man previously convicted on terrorism charges was able to carry out an attack in London despite wearing a GPS tracker.

A 28-year-old man who had previously been jailed for his role in a plot to blow up the London Stock Exchange in 2012 carried out a stabbing attack Friday at London Bridge that resulted in the deaths of a man and a woman Friday and injuries to three others. Police believe that Usman Khan, who is affiliated with an al-Qaida-inspired terrorist group, acted alone in the attack, which is considered a terrorist incident. Khan was shot dead by police after civilians restrained him.

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Police confirmed that, just prior to the attack, Khan was attending a Cambridge University conference on prisoner rehabilitation. Read more at BBC and The Guardian.

Tim O'Donnell

Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.