‘Terror’ motive behind UK immigration center attack, police say

LONDON — Last week’s firebombing of a UK migrant processing center was motivated by “terrorist ideology,” counter-terrorism police say.

Police say evidence — including from devices — suggests “an extreme right-wing motivation behind the attack” in the southeast port town of Dover on October 30.

The evidence recovered “indicates the attack… was motivated by a terrorist ideology,” police say.

Homemade incendiary devices were thrown at the Western Jet Foil Border Force center, leaving two staff with minor injuries.

The facility in the busy town processes migrants who have crossed the Channel from northern Europe in small boats.

Tim Jacques, a senior national coordinator for Counter Terrorism Policing, says while there were “strong indications that mental health was likely a factor”, he had concluded that the “suspect’s actions were primarily driven by an extremist ideology”.

These met the “threshold for a terrorist incident,” he says.

The attack was carried out by a 66-year-old man who was later found dead.

“There is currently nothing to suggest the offender was working alongside anyone else and there is not believed to be any wider threat to the public,” police say.

The British government is currently grappling with how to deal with a record number of migrants crossing the Channel from northern Europe in small boats.