The Government is considering introducing a new law to tackle terrorist propaganda in the wake of the 2017 London Bridge terror attack.

Chief Coroner Mark Lucraft QC identified a potential gap in legislation following inquests into the deaths of the eight people killed in the June 3 atrocity and their attackers.

Ringleader Khuram Butt, 27, had looked at extremist material online, including propaganda from the so-called Islamic State, violent images and sermons from extremist preachers.

The coroner said current legislation means it may be impossible for police or MI5 to act against fanatics even when “the material is of the most offensive and shocking character”.

And he suggested a new law could be introduced to tackle possession of the “most serious material glorifying or encouraging terrorism,” in a preventing future deaths report.

Responding on Tuesday, Home Secretary Priti Patel said: “The Government accepts this recommendation and is currently considering the necessity for a further offence of possessing the most serious extremist material which glorifies or encourages terrorism.”

Mr Lucraft suggested extremist material could be criminalised in the same way as the most offensive pornography.

Ms Patel said talks are ongoing between the Home Office and counter-terrorism police “as to whether there is a gap in the current legislation”.

“Our operational partners must have the tools and powers they require to tackle terrorism,” she said.

“The Government notes the Chief Coroner’s comments regarding the evidence at the inquests, the existence of the offence for a person in possession of a prohibited image of a child, and the perception that the lack of a comparative counter-terrorism offence may sometimes prevent counter terrorism policing from taking disruptive action.”

Eight people were killed and 48 others seriously injured when terrorists used a hired van to plough into pedestrians on London Bridge before attacking people at random around Borough Market on June 3 2017.

Butt, Rachid Redouane, 30, and Youssef Zaghba, 22, were lawfully killed after they were shot dead by armed police, an inquest jury found.

A separate inquest concluded that Xavier Thomas, 45, Chrissy Archibald, 30, Sara Zelenak, 21, James McMullan, 32, Kirsty Boden, 28, Alexandre Pigeard, 26, Sebastien Belanger, 36, and Ignacio Echeverria, 39, were unlawfully killed.

The coroner identified 18 “matters for concern” in a report published in November and told those responsible to address the issues.

But Patrick Maguire, an injury lawyer from Slater and Gordon, which represents the family of Mr Thomas and some of the surviving victims, said the recommendations came too late for those maimed and killed.

“The coroner’s report, and subsequent responses, reinforce my clients’ view there were a litany of unforgivable mistakes and missed opportunities by authorities which contributed to the death toll,” he said.

“It is troubling that many of the common sense improvements in authorities’ systems, procedures and protocols had to follow such a devastating loss of life.

“My clients hope these undertakings and commitments to improve are implemented faithfully and quickly.”

The inquest heard that police and MI5 did not recognise the threat posed by Butt, despite his association with Islamic State fanatic Anjem Choudary and an appearance in the documentary The Jihadi Next Door.

He was a subject of interest in an active MI5 investigation at the time of the attack.

But the probe was twice suspended due to pressure on resources and the authorities did not pass on tip-offs about his extremism, including one from a family member.

MI5 accepted, in its response to Mr Lucraft’s report, that the suspension of priority investigations was a “matter of legitimate concern” but insisted the decisions in Butt’s case “were sound”.

The security service said it had “reviewed and refined” its processes since 2017 but rejected the coroner’s suggestion that investigations could be scaled back rather than halted at times of high demand.

MI5 said: “In light of the flexibility within the suspension process and open investigations, the security service concludes that a new category of scaled back investigation is not required at this point and would not achieve the important aim of properly diverting specialist resource to those investigations deemed to be of the highest priority at the time in order to minimise the risk from attack plans judged to be imminent or which are deemed on the information available to pose the greatest threat to the public.”

The coroner also said action should be taken to reduce the risk of rented vehicles being used in terror attacks, which could include automated checking of rentals against lists of SOIs.

But trade body the British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association (BVRLA), said the cost of real-time reporting needs to be considered, while the Government said there were “considerable challenges” to implementing such a scheme.

Jennifer Buchanan, a solicitor at law firm Field Fisher representing the family of Ms Archibald, who was killed when she was hit by the rented van, said: “It is encouraging that the BVRLA is taking steps to reinforce a culture of awareness among its members.

“We are concerned, however, that cost has been raised as a possible deterrent to implementing a formal system and also that there is not active consideration to introduce legislation to enforce real-time reporting.

“We hope this does not delay the introduction of vital measures to deter terrorists from being able to use vehicles as weapons which must be a priority.”

But Patrick Maguire, an injury lawyer from Slater and Gordon, which represents some of the victims, said the recommendations came too late for those injured and killed.

“The coroner’s report, and subsequent responses, reinforce my clients’ view there were a litany of unforgivable mistakes and missed opportunities by authorities which contributed to the death toll,” he said.

“It is troubling that many of common sense improvements in authorities’ systems, procedures and protocols had to follow such a devastating loss of life.

“My clients hope these undertakings and commitments to improve are implemented faithfully and quickly.”

The girlfriend of the first victim of the London Bridge attack has told his inquest she had a “premonition” they would be caught by terrorists.

Christine Delcros was walking on the bridge with father-of-two Xavier Thomas when they were mowed down by terrorists in a hired van on the evening of June 3 2017.

Ms Delcros was badly injured while Mr Thomas, 44, was catapulted over the balustrade and into the Thames. The Frenchman was found three days later and the cause of death was given as immersion.

Ms Delcros told the court she and her boyfriend had travelled by Eurostar for a weekend of sightseeing in London on June 3.

At 9.30pm they had decided to walk from their hotel, the Four Seasons in London Bridge, to have a cocktail in the Shard.

Mr Thomas had been tired but rejected the suggestion of going another night, she said. “I told him I did not know. I had so many premonitions about terror attacks from the day before and I could feel it.

“But I did not tell him, in fact, and to please me he started searching on his phone for another place but it is late now. He said, ‘that’s OK, it’s a magnificent view’, and he had planned everything properly accordingly and not to disappoint him I said OK.

“I just called my daughter and he has a younger son so he called his son and after that we went. After that I do not remember at the time of the van.”

Ms Delcros said she remembered being on the bridge and had the feeling that something was “not normal”.

“Suddenly I was under the impression there was a lot of light and a van that mounted the pavement in the exact fashion to make sure they were not going to miss us.

“I just heard myself say to myself, ‘that’s how one dies, that’s it’.”

Crying, she went on: “I thought that I had died, that the curtain had fallen. To me I was dead. I said to myself that’s how one dies and I have no recollection of the crash.

“It was only light when I woke up.”

Ms Delcros said a man came to help her and held her head as she regained consciousness.

She said: “Once I regained consciousness I asked, ‘where’s Xavier?’. He tried to look for him but he could not find him. I ordered him to look for him.”

The witness said she was in a lot of pain and felt like she was going into light.

“I could hear some voices, I was no longer there. I had my whole head with me but I was no longer using my body. I was going. I thought I would never get out of that light. I would stay there for ever.”

Asked by counsel for the coroner Jonathan Hough QC if she wanted to add to her evidence, she said: “I’m madly in love with Xavier.”

BBC journalist Holly Jones went to help Ms Delcros after jumping out of the path of the van and told police to check the water for her boyfriend.

Describing the moment a “demented” driver headed towards her, Ms Jones said: “Immediately I just froze. It was a feeling I described as like being punched into the chest. “There was a lady in front of me walking towards me. She had headphones on so she was not aware of any of this.

“I remember being stood frozen in fear. Something in the back of my mind told me to get out of the way. I jumped to the right towards the railings.

“At that point the van went past me. I could feel the wind of the van directly behind.”

Ms Jones said she remembered the French couple who looked “very happy together” on the bridge.

“I remember looking over and saw a female on the floor. My first thought was, ‘where’s the gentleman that was with her?'”

She scoured up and down the river but could not see where he was.

When she went to Ms Delcros, the French woman said, “where’s my boyfriend?”, and Ms Jones replied, “I don’t know”, the Old Bailey heard.

She added: “Those who did this try to separate us but they did the opposite. We are not victims of terror, we are survivors.”

Mark Roberts was among a group who had set up tripods to take photographs of Tower Bridge from London Bridge.

He saw a “commotion” with screams and shouts coming from the northern end of the bridge.

He told the court the van was going about 30mph or 40mph when it mounted the pavement and hit a group of people.

He said: “It looked to me it was deliberately steering and aiming at the people. That’s when I realised this is not an accident, this is a deliberate intent.

“At that point it started driving along the pavement towards me. There was one group of people, which included the previous witnesses, 20 yards away.

“I was thinking I should find some cover and I looked around and there was not really anywhere to go so I was frozen to the spot.”

Mr Roberts said he thought he was “next in line”, but suddenly the van steered away towards a large group of people running away.

He told the court one woman was thrown into the air “like a rag doll”.

On Wednesday, Gareth Patterson QC, representing some of the victims, said Mr Thomas and the second victim, Christine Archibald, would not have died if barriers had been put up after the Westminster Bridge attack two months before.

He has also questioned why more had not been done to stop Khuram Butt from hiring the van that hit them, despite being under investigation by MI5 and counter-terrorism police at the time.

After striking 10 pedestrians, including Mr Thomas and 30-year-old Ms Archibald, on the bridge, driver Youssef Zaghba crashed into railings.

Butt, 27, Rachid Redouane, 30, and Zaghba, 22, got out with 12in knives strapped to their hands with duct tape and wearing fake suicide belts.

They ran amok around Borough Market, killing six more people and injuring 48.

They were stopped by police marksmen who shot them dead less than 10 minutes after the rampage began.

The victims were Ms Archibald, 30, Mr Thomas, 45, Alexandre Pigeard, 26, Sara Zelenak, 21, Kirsty Boden, 28, Sebastien Belanger, 36, James McMullan, 32, and Ignacio Echeverria, 39.