New Zealand terror suspect ‘must have been influenced by British far right’- Sky News

Britain, the United States and other allies are looking into the travel history of the suspected gunman in the New Zealand massacre to see if he met others who share his extreme views.

Sky News reports Brenton Tarrant was reported to have travelled to the UK as part of a two-month tour of Europe that fed his thinking.

The Sunday Telegraph quoted a senior government source as saying he “transitted” through Britain in 2017, staying “for a few weeks”.

It was not immediately possible to confirm the claim.

Tarrant posted a series of videos and articles linked to right-wing extremism in Britain in the three days leading up to the attack on Friday. He shared links on his Facebook page to speeches by British fascist leader Sir Oswald Mosley, a man whose beliefs he said he most closely shared.

The suspect also posted an official British Army advert designed to show religious diversity by portraying a Muslim British soldier praying.But Tarrant wrote: “Is it considered green on blue if they wear the same uniforms?”

In addition, the Australian-born suspect shared an Office for National Statistics document charting the ethnic breakup of the UK population.

Sky News adds that Bulgaria said it had launched an investigation into the movements of Tarrant after revealing he had rented a car in the Balkan state last November to visit more than a dozen cities.

Interior minister Mladen Marinov said: “We are working on determining the locations he visited, the places he used as accommodation, tracing every single step he made with all the data we can collect. “One of our main tasks is to determine whether he had contacts with Bulgarian citizens and were there local people who escorted him.”

Chief prosecutor Sotir Tsatsarov said Tarrant was in the country from 9 to 15 November. He visited a number of historic sites, appearing interested in battles between Christians and the Ottoman arm