The suspect arrested on suspicion of carrying out a terrorist attack at the UK Parliament on Tuesday has been named as Salih Khater, Sky News reported. It is believed the 29-year-old is a British citizen of Sudanese origin, and remains in police custody after his arrest on suspicion of preparing an act of terror.
A Facebook page for a man of the same name says he lives in Birmingham, works as a shop manager, and has studied at Sudan University of Science and Technology.
Khater has been arrested on suspicion of ramming a car into pedestrians and cyclists before crashing into security barriers outside the Houses of Parliament. The suspect is being held in custody in south London, and is said to be not cooperating with police. Scotland Yard’s head of counter-terrorism Neil Basu said no other suspects have been identified.
Police have been searching addresses in the Midlands after a car smashed into barriers near Parliament on Tuesday morning. Officers revealed the driver travelled from Birmingham to London on Monday night and arrived in the capital just after midnight.
He remained in the Tottenham Court Road area, close to Oxford Street, from around 1.25am until 5.55am.
The silver Ford Fiesta was then driven to Westminster and Whitehall for about 6am and stayed in the area until the time of the attack. It hit cyclists and pedestrians at 7.37am before crashing into security barriers.
According to the MI5, the suspect was unknown and “not currently cooperating”, the Metropolitan Police said afterwards. His vehicle was removed late on Tuesday night.
Two addresses in the West Midlands city were being searched by counter-terror officers later that evening, as well as a flat in Nottingham’s Radford/ Arboretum area.
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It was the second terrorist attack on the Houses of Parliament in just under 18 months. The first one in March last year claimed the lives of five people, including a police officer. In a third incident, an attempted attack was foiled when counter-terrorist officers arrested the potential assailant, who was found outside parliament in possession of three knives.
A man and a women were taken to hospital with non life-threatening injuries after the vehicle hit cyclists in rush hour, but they have now been discharged. Witnesses described how the car came “whipping round the corner” and drove through about a dozen cyclists.
Robert Nicholson told Sky News he saw the incident unfold as he was waiting in a “safe cycling box” near Parliament. He chased the car after the impact left one woman flying up “onto the bonnet” and snapped the frame of one of the bikes.
Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu said: “There is no intelligence at this time of further danger to Londoners or to the rest of the UK connected to this incident.”
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