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Stockholm terror suspect Rakhmat Akilov sent WhatsApp messages to an Islamic State supporter before and after the attack, it was claimed today.

The 39-year-old father-of-four, from Uzbekistan, was identified as the suspected driver of the hijacked beer truck which mowed down pedestrians in the Swedish capital on Friday.

British father Chris Bevington, 41, a director at music streaming service Spotify, was one of four people killed in the busy shopping district.

He was described by relatives as a “talented, compassionate and caring” person.

Akilov, who was arrested hours after the attack, reportedly admitted to police he had planned the assault

Today Swedish and Russian media published details of encrypted messages sent to a fellow fanatic emerged, in which he states: “I ran over ten people.”

Screenshots of the conversation with an IS supporter from Tajikistan using the pseudonym Abu Fatyma were said to have been published on an online forum used by Islamists.

According to Expressen, Akilov writes he has matches, acetone, lighter, gas lighters and bolts, and then asks: “One question, how do you make a bomb?

"Tomorrow I want to find a great car and run into a crowd.”

Fatyma responds: “Do not lose time in vain.”

Barely an hour after the terrorist attack, Fatyma asks him: “Are you alive?” Akilov replies: “I’ve been running over ten people in the centre of Stockholm, now I have to try and get out of here!”

He adds: “It went bad, I hit a few, but the car went wrong. Now I’m at the airport, a dead end.”

The Tajik IS-follower says: “Allahu Akbar, my brother, I cry, I love you, how are you stand firm, you are going.”

The chat reportedly ends with Akilov sending a video from the site of the terrorist attack in Stockholm.

Akilov is understood to have fled to the airport by train.

He apparently injured himself by spilling chemicals on to his hands and legs during the attack, with a blood trial leading to Arlanda Airport where he was caught.

Investigators have also confirmed a “suspect device” was found inside the lorry, reportedly a “bag of explosives”.

Akilov, an asylum seeker who had his application for Swedish residency rejected in June last year, reportedly told police he had “achieved what he set out to do” and that his deadly rampage was “revenge for bombing ISIS”.

He allegedly had links to the Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir, newspaper Expressen reported.

Police spokesman Jonas Hysing said: “We know that he showed sympathies for extremist organisations, among them Islamic State.”

Police had been looking for Akilov since Sweden’s Migration Agency gave him four weeks to leave the country in December.

Yesterday, Mr Bevington’s father John paid tribute to his murdered son.

He said: “We are all devastated by the untimely and tragic death of our talented, compassionate and caring son Chris.

“A wonderful husband, son, father, brother and close friend to many. The family requests absolute privacy at this incredibly difficult time to mourn his passing in peace.”

Spotify’s founder, Daniel Ek, added: “There are no words for how missed he will be or for how sad we all are to have lost him like this.”

Another victim was reportedly an 11-year-old girl walking home from school.

Fifteen other people were injured in the attack. Four of the wounded remain in a serious condition with two being treated in intensive care.

A second person has now been arrested on suspicion of a “terrorist crime through murder”, and police are holding four others.

Meanwhile a 17-year-old asylum seeker from Russia was arrested on Sunday in connection with an explosive device found near a busy underground station in Norway’s capital.

Police defused the device before it detonated, authorities said.