The London Bridge terrorists who killed eight people and injured 48 others during a bloody rampage in the summer of 2017 were lawfully shot dead by armed police, a jury has concluded.

Khuram Butt, 27, Rachid Redouane, 30, and Youssef Zaghba, 22, armed with 12-inch ceramic knives and wearing fake suicide belts, mowed down pedestrians in a van before carrying out a series of random stabbings on members of the public on June 3, 2017.

The killing spree was brought to an end after less than 10 minutes when the three attackers were confronted by armed police officers.

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A court at the Old Bailey in London heard on Tuesday how the officers shouted warnings before firing at Butt, Redouane and Zaghba as they came at them. Fearing that the terrorists may detonate explosive devices, the police shot them dead on the ground as they lay injured.

A bomb disposal expert revealed that he only realised the suicide belts were fake after he cut them off the dead bodies and held them up.

Jurors deliberated for three hours before concluding that the three terrorists were lawfully killed having “ignored clear warning shouts” from the officers. Chief coroner Mark Lucraft QC, directing the jury, said that the course of action undertaken by armed police was the only “safe” conclusion in the circumstances.

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A pre-inquest hearing in 2018 heard how Butt, Redouane and Zaghba each had traces of a steroid called Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) in their system when they carried out the attack.

In November, a report by the Intelligence and Security Committee revealed that the ringleader, Khuram Butt, had been released by police eight months before perpetrating the attack. They found he had jihadist materials when he was arrested for fraud but didn’t prosecute him then.

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