Man found guilty of plotting to kill May

A British man was found guilty of a plot to kill Prime Minister Theresa May by first detonating an explosive device to get into her Downing Street office and then using a knife or a gun to attack her.

Naa'imur Rahman, 20, was convicted at the Old Bailey court of preparing to commit acts of terrorism on Wednesday. Rahman, of Ballards Lane in Finchley, London, gave his nationality as Bangladeshi-British in court, reported the Independent.

“We are talking about an individual that would have killed, injured and maimed a number of people including police officers and members of the public,” said Dean Haydon, head of the Metropolitan Police's Counter Terrorism Command.

The plot was foiled when Rahman believed he was corresponding online with members of the Islamic State (IS) militant group while planning the alleged attack but was in fact talking to members of undercover officers from the FBI and Britain's MI5 Security Service.

Rahman was arrested last November shortly after meeting undercover officers posing as IS members and collecting two dummy explosives.

Haydon said Rahman had been in contact with an uncle who had traveled to Syria and joined IS and who had encouraged his nephew to carry out attacks in Britain. He had been planning to carry out the attack for two years but his resolve was hardened when he heard that his uncle had been killed in a drone attack last summer.

Rahman was described by police as a drifter, who lived on friends' sofas.