Russell Square stabbing suspect a 'pleasant' young man

Neighbours of a teenager charged over the Russell Square knife attack described him as a "quiet" and "pleasant" young man who enjoyed playing football with his younger brother.

The 19-year-old, Zakaria Bulhan, from Tooting in south London, is due to appear in court on Saturday over Wednesday's rampage which left an American woman dead and five others injured.

Two police officers remained on duty outside the door of his family home on Friday, a council flat in Robertson House on a road adjacent to St George's Hospital.

One neighbour, Parmjit Singh Bhamra, described Bulhan as a "quiet, academic boy who was a bit of a loner" who liked football, basketball and music.

He said Bulhan, who is unemployed, lived at the flat with his younger brother Salah, and his elder sister Segal, and their mother Safia, whom neighbours call "auntie".

Another neighbour, who asked not to be named, said: "He seems to be a very nice, pleasant person, like when I am going out or he is coming down the stairs he is very nice, saying 'Hi, how are you?'."

Bulhan is a Norwegian national of Somali origin who moved to the UK in 2002.

The man said: "He is very quiet. Most of the time he goes out and plays football out the front in the playground with his brother and some friends, or in the garden at the back.

"They are a quiet family. The mother is very nice, very pleasant. When I go out shopping or out to work she is always a very pleasant person when passing in the stairs.

"She opens the door for my mother because she has a walking stick."