Sudanese-origin British citizen named in car crash outside UK Parliament

British citizen of Sudanese origin Salih Khater was driving the car that injured three persons in a terror attack outside the UK’s Parliament, media from England has reported citing government sources. The 29-year-old, who has studied electrical engineering in Sudan, lived in Birmingham’s Sparkhill district. He describes himself as a shop manager. He was held on suspicion of terrorism by Scotland Yard’s Counter-Terrorism Command. Khater, a British citizen originally from Sudan, continues to be questioned at a south London police station as searches are undertaken at three addresses in Birmingham and Nottingham as part of the investigation. It has emerged that he spent 90 minutes trawling the area around the Houses of Parliament before speeding into the barriers, having travelled up from Birmingham. The suspect, who is yet to be officially named by police, had studied at Sudan University of Science and Technology, according to his Facebook page.

Khater drove the car at high speed and ploughed into several pedestrians and cyclists before crashing into security barriers outside Parliament during rush hour, injuring three persons. It was the second terrorism incident on the iconic building in central London since March last year.

Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu, the National Lead for Counter Terrorism Policing in the UK, said, “we are treating it as a terrorist incident”.

The UK has been on high alert since the March 2017 attack in which Khalid Masood drove into pedestrians on Westminster Bridge, killing five, before going on a stabbing spree at the gates of Parliament. It was followed by a suicide bombing at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester in May, which claimed 23 lives.

In June last year, a group of three ISIS-inspired men rammed a vehicle into pedestrians in London Bridge area before going on a stabbing frenzy, killing eight people before being shot by armed officers.