LONDON, Aug. 15 (Xinhua) -- The man believed to be behind Tuesday's Westminster terror attack has been named as Salih Khater.

UK newspapers on Wednesday reported that the 29-year-old British citizen of Sudanese origin brought the spectre of terrorism back to London when he allegedly drove his Ford Fiesta into commuters and towards police officers before hitting a security barrier outside Parliament.

Police said the man is being questioned in south London and police have been searching three addresses in Birmingham and Nottingham as part of their investigation.

The suspect is not believed to have been known to MI5 or counter-terrorism police, but is understood to have been known to local police.

He did not cooperate with officers after his arrest, Scotland Yard said.

The suspect moved to Britain about five years ago and is a shop manager in Birmingham. He travelled to London late on Monday from Birmingham, where he had recently lived in a rented flat in Sparkbrook, an area that was previously linked with terrorist plots.

Police are treating the attack as a terror-related incident "given that this appears to be a deliberate act, the method, and this being an iconic site", Scotland Yard's head of counter-terrorism Neil Basu said.

No one else was in the car when it crashed and no weapons were found in it.

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick said Westminster could be pedestrianised to stop vehicle attacks, calling them terrorists' "weapon of choice".

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said he was also in favor of more security measures being introduced in Parliament Square and around London.

The Parliament is not far from the Westminster Bridge, where a terrorist attack took place in March 2017 when Khalid Masood ploughed a car into crowds on Westminster Bridge, killing four people. A UK government spokesman said a total of 13 Islamist plot and four far-right plots have been successfully foiled since the Westminster terror attack in March 2017. Enditem

Related

Go to Forum >>0 Comment(s)