The British police on Monday said there had been no evidence suggesting a link between the United Kingdom Parliament attacker Khalid Masood and the Islamic State, or al-Qaeda, BBC reported. However, Deputy Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu said Masood was interested in jihad. The incident on March 22 left four people dead.

“His methods appear to be based on low sophistication, low tech, low cost techniques copied from other attacks, and echo the rhetoric of IS leaders in terms of methodology,” Basu said, adding that there was no evidence that Masood had discussed his plan with anyone. Basu said it was “pure speculation” that Masood was radicalised in prison in 2003 as there had been no evidence suggesting that.

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The Islamic State group had claimed responsibility for the attacks a day after the incident, saying one of its “soldiers” had carried it out. Its affiliated news agency Aamaq had said that the assailant had carried out the attack the avenge the civilian deaths at the hands of the US-led coalition forces fighting the extremist group in West Asia.

On Saturday, the Metropolitan police had said that Masood may have carried out the attack alone. As many as 11 people were detained in connection with the case, of which nine had been released later. A 58-year-old man arrested from Birmingham is still in police custody, while a woman arrested from Manchester has secured bail, the Metropolitan police had said.

During the investigations, it had been found that Masood was born in Kent and had been convicted for assault and possession of lethal weapons between 1983 and 2003. His former neighbours in Birmingham said Masood came across as a “nice guy”.

The assailant had mowed people down with his car on the Westminster Bridge before heading towards the Parliament building. At least 40 people were injured in the incident. Masood was eventually shot dead, though he managed to stab a police officer to death before that.