UK media identifies London attack suspect as Briton of Sudanese origin

LONDON — British authorities say Wednesday they are considering turning the area around Parliament into a pedestrian zone to prevent future vehicle attacks as police searched three properties for clues about the motivation of a man who plowed a car into cyclists and pedestrians, injuring three.

Local media on Wednesday identifies the suspect as Salih Khater, a 29-year-old British citizen of Sudanese origin. Police searched the suspect’s apartment in the central England city of Birmingham, as well as another property in the city and a third in Nottingham, about 50 miles (80 kms) away.

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. Coventry University in central England says Khater had studied accounting there between September 2017 and May 2018 but was no longer enrolled.

Ahmed Abdi, a neighbor of Khater in Birmingham, says he recognized him from news footage, “and I was shocked.”

“He was very, very quiet and he never spoke to anybody. He would say nothing to nobody,” Abdi says.

British authorities do not name suspects until they are formally charged. London’s Metropolitan Police force says the suspect was not known to counterterrorism officers or the intelligence services.

— AP

BREAKING: The suspect in the Westminster attack has been named as 29-year-old Salih Khater pic.twitter.com/abD0x146r8

— Sky News (@SkyNews) August 15, 2018