MOMENT TERROR SUSPECT NABBED
COPS’ RAID AT THREE HOMES IN MIDLANDS
A SUSPECTED terrorist who mowed down cyclists and pedestrians at 50mph in Westminster was known to police.
But he was not on the radar of counter-terror police or MI5 and was refusing to cooperate with detectives last night.
Police searched two addresses in Birmingham and another in Nottingham where six Sudanese people live.
Reports claimed the suspect was known to officers in the West Midlands, and had bought the car just two months ago. It also emerged the Fiesta had been written off by an insurance company last November.
The driver, 29, brought horror to the same part of London where Khalid Masood carried out a murderous rampage in March last year.
Only three people were injured before he crashed into a security barrier outside Parliament, where he was arrested by armed police on suspicion of preparing a terrorist act.
Two people were taken to hospital yesterday and another was treated for minor injuries at the scene.
Officers found no weapons in the silver Ford and the black suspect, who is from Birmingham and described as a British citizen but originally from another country, was alone.
Jumped
Police said the car travelled from Birmingham to London on Monday night, arriving just after midnight.
Dramatic footage showed it swerve down the road and into cyclists before smashing into a bollard at 7.37am, forcing a police officer to jump out of the way.
Westminster went into lockdown and a large police cordon was put in place.
Geoffrey Woodman, a strategy consultant, said: “There was a sound like tyres screeching. This car turned round to the left and swerved into the wrong lane of traffic and into the bank where all the cyclists wait.”
Most cyclists jumped off their bikes but a woman was clipped by the car bonnet.
Businessman Jason Williams, 45, said: “I saw a car going at high speed towards Parliament. It looked deliberate. It was a loud bang.”
He added: “He had driven it at speed. There was smoke coming out of the car.
Neil Basu, Scotland Yard’s counter-terrorism head, said: “Given that this appears to be a deliberate act, the method and this being an iconic site, we are treating it as a terrorist incident.”
Prime Minister Theresa May is in Switzerland on holiday but is being updated. In a statement she said: “I would urge the public to remain vigilant but also to come together and carry on as normal, just as they did after the sickening attacks in Manchester and London last year.”
Chancellor Philip Hammond is currently the most senior minister in London, while Home Secretary Sajid Javid was due to return from a family break.