The charges come just a day after three Ukrainian nationals were arrested on suspicion of plotting parcel bomb attacks in Germany on behalf of the Russian state.

Police arrested the man in Sydenham in the early hours of Tuesday morning and he was charged on Thursday.

One neighbour said: “He was a normal guy - like us. I don’t know how old he was, he looked like 20 or 19. I remember I started seeing him at the beginning of August 2023, since when I was living here.”

Another neighbour, a 40-year-old nursery worker who lived in the flat above him for seven years, said: “He was a normal boy, sometimes he had friends in the car. Sometimes he was here during the summer, sometimes when I was coming and going I saw him.

“Of course I would say hello... He was a quiet boy, not speaking much. The old lady that usually says hello to me came to ask me to help when the door was broken [by the police]. She told me she had no idea what had happened because she was on holiday.

“The only contact I had with him was when I bought an iPhone and they didn’t leave it at the door so he got the delivery for me. He gave it to me, he was normal, a neighbour.

“He spoke English not too well - but we could understand each other. It sounded like Polish.”