British police seek motive of suspect in crash at Parliament
LONDON — Detectives searched several properties as they built up a profile Wednesday of a Sudanborn man who authorities say crashed a car outside Britain’s Parliament in what police are treating as an act of terrorism.
Police are trying to determine what was in the mind of Salih Khater, 29, who they say swerved a Ford Fiesta across a road and plowed into cyclists and pedestrians, injuring three, before smashing into a security barrier.
All of the three people injured have been released from the hospital.
Khater, a British citizen of Sudanese origin, was arrested at the scene of Tuesday’s crash on suspicion of “the commission, preparation and instigation of acts of terrorism,” police said. Police said later he was also suspected of attempted murder.
British authorities do not name suspects until they are charged but media and neighbors said the arrested man was Khater.
Police confirmed the suspect was a 29-year-old British man originally from Sudan. They said he was not previously known to counterterrorism officers or the intelligence services.
Police said they had finished searching an apartment where the suspect had lived in the central England city of Birmingham, as well as another property in the city and one in Nottingham, about 50 miles away. They also are searching a third property in Birmingham, 100 miles northwest of London.
Coventry University in central England said Khater had studied accounting there between September 2017 and May 2018 but had failed his first-year studies and was no longer enrolled.