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London attacks death toll rises to 8 after body recovered from river

London attacks death toll rises to 8 after body recovered from river

The death toll from the London Bridge terror attack has risen to eight today after police searching for a French man missing since Saturday recovered a body from the River Thames.

Xavier Thomas, 45, is thought to have been struck by the terrorists' van on the bridge and witnesses reported him being thrown into the water.

The body was recovered near Limehouse, downstream of London Bridge, at around 7.45pm on Tuesday by specialist officers from the marine police unit.

Scotland Yard said formal identification had not yet taken place, but Mr Thomas' next of kin had been informed.

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James McMullan, 32, from Hackney, Canadian Christine Archibald, 30, Australian nurse Kirsty Boden, 28, and Alexandre Pigeard, 27, have already been named among the dead.

Nathalie Cros Brohan, sister of Mr Thomas's girlfriend Christine Delcros, posted on Facebook this morning that the family "fear the worst".

Earlier:

A man has been arrested on suspicion of terror offences by detectives investigating the London Bridge attack following an early morning raid at an address in east London.

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The 30-year-old was held on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of terrorist acts during a search of a property in Ilford and taken for questioning at a south London police station, Scotland Yard said.

The arrest comes as security services face growing questions over their monitoring of the three attackers in the lead up to the attack.

A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: "Detectives investigating the London Bridge terror attack have carried out a search warrant at an address in east London in the early hours of Wednesday June 7.

"Officers from the Met's Counter Terrorism Command, supported by officers from the Territorial Support Group, entered the address in Ilford at around 1.30am.

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"A 30-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of terrorist acts (contrary to section 5 Terrorism Act 2006) and has been taken into custody at a south London police station under the Terrorism Act 2000.

"A search of the address is ongoing."

Gardaí are questioning a man arrested in Wexford yesterday.

A man arrested in Limerick in connection with the London terror attacks was released without charge yesterday afternoon.

He is understood to have been working as a chef in the city using a PRSI identity paper number issued in the name of terrorist, Rachid Redouane.

Yesterday the third attacker was named as Youssef Zaghba, an Italian national of Moroccan descent, who was living in east London.

Zaghba, Pakistan-born British citizen Khuram Shazad Butt, 27, and Rachid Redouane, 30, who claimed to be Moroccan-Libyan, launched a murderous rampage around London Bridge and Borough Market on Saturday night.

According to the mother of 22-year-old Zaghba, he became radicalised online, echoing concerns raised by British Prime Minister Theresa May that the internet can be fertile ground for breeding extremism.

"We have always been checking his friendships and verifying that he was not trusting the wrong people, but he had the internet and from there he got everything," Valeria Khadija Collina told L'Espresso in Bologna.

Zaghba was stopped at Bologna's airport trying to fly to Turkey in March last year over concerns he was intending to travel on to Syria, according to reports.

The youngest of Saturday's attackers is said to have told Italian authorities "I'm going to be a terrorist", while officers reportedly found Islamic State-related material on his mobile phone when they intercepted him.

Counter-terror agencies are already facing intense scrutiny after it was revealed Butt had been known to security services.

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