A man who lived next to a London apartment raided by police after the deadly car-and-knife terror attack said he believed his neighbor — who recently asked him about renting a van — was one of the suspects and thought he had seen him on television.
Ikenna Chigbo said one of the suspects in the deadly terror attack on London Bridge late Saturday appeared to be wearing the same clothes as his neighbor had been wearing earlier in the day.
"God, I couldn't believe it ... He was wearing the same top yesterday," Chigbo told NBC News' British partner ITV News on Sunday. "He had the same shaved head and beard. I really could not believe it."
Seven people were killed and another 50 were wounded — 21 of them critically, officials said — after a van barreled into pedestrians on London Bridge before three attackers went on a stabbing spree at a nearby market. The three attackers were killed by police, and a member of the public was shot, but did not sustain critical injuries, authorities said.
Police have arrested 12 people in the East London neighborhood of Barking.
Chigbo, who had recently rented a van to move, said his neighbor had asked him Saturday how he could get hold of a similar vehicle.
“It was quite strange, and he was quite getting inquisitive about the van,” he said.
"He was saying to me, oh, where can I get a van from — just asking me all the details — how much was it, and just like asking where he could get a van basically."
Chigbo said he also recognized the other suspects and had seen them going "in and out of the apartment from time to time."
He added that his neighbor seemed like he "was a genuinely nice guy" who was "well-spoken."
The man was married and had two children, he said.
Another neighbor agreed, telling ITV News that the man had a London accent and could often be found playing table tennis in the lobby of the apartment block.
"He was just a normal bloke," said Furkan Nabi.
Neighbor Abhilasha Chalisgaonkar described seeing police arrest two people in the neighborhood of Barking Sunday morning.
“I was so scared,” she said. “Then they brought out one [person], he was completely covered with a hood."
“It’s very scary actually because you feel like you don’t know who is your neighbor,” she added.
Furqan Nabi, also in Barking, described the “chaotic” scene of police raiding he second floor of an apartment building early Sunday. He said he saw several men and a woman taken into custody
