Suspect in UK parliament attack is British citizen of Sudanese origin
LONDON (Reuters) – A man detained on suspicion of carrying out a terrorist attack outside Britain’s parliament is Salih Khater, a British citizen of Sudanese origin, a European security source told Reuters on Wednesday.
Police believe Khater deliberately drove his car into pedestrians and cyclists, injuring three people, before he rammed it into a security barrier outside parliament on Tuesday morning.
The 29-year-old driver was arrested by armed officers at the scene moments later. He is currently being questioned on suspicion of preparing acts of terrorism. On Wednesday was further charged on suspicion of attempted murder, although police have said he is not cooperating with detectives.
The security source told Reuters that Khater is from Birmingham in central England, and was not known to security services before Tuesday.
A spokesman for nearby Coventry University told The Daily Telegraph that Khater had studied accountancy from September 2017 until May 2018 but failed his first-year course and lost his place at the school.
On Wednesday, London police confirmed they were satisfied they knew the identity of the arrested man, saying he was originally from Sudan, although they did not name him.
In a statement, police said officers were still searching one address in the city of Birmingham but had concluded their investigations at two other properties in Birmingham and Nottingham, also in central England.
“The priority of the investigation team continues to be to understand the motivation behind this incident,” the statement said.
Speaking shortly after the incident, Britain’s counter-terrorism police chief said that given the iconic location and the method used, it appeared the incident was “a deliberate act” and was therefore being treated as a terrorist incident.
Video footage showed the car veering across the road and into a security lane leading to parliament before smashing into the barrier. No one else was in the vehicle at the time and no weapons have been found.
The car involved, a silver Ford Fiesta, has been removed and the security lane reopened as usual.
The Fiesta was driven down to the British capital from Birmingham on Monday night and was then driven in the Tottenham Court Road area, near central London’s main shopping district, for about four hours, police said.
At about 5 a.m. it was driven to the Westminster and Whitehall area where parliament and most central government departments are located before the incident occurred at 6:37 a.m.
Police said the incident appeared to be the second terrorist attack at the parliament building in just under 18 months, after a British-born Muslim convert killed four people on nearby Westminster Bridge in March 2017.