Salih Khater, a 29-year-old citizen of the UK, originally from Sudan’s Darfur region, has been named as the suspect behind the latest car ramming attack in downtown London, before the British Parliament.

Tuesday morning’s vehicle attack, which has officially been described by Scotland Yard as a “terrorist incident”, has left three people injured.

The suspect was arrested by police on duty immediately after his silver Ford Fiesta crashed into the security barriers of the Houses of Parliament in London, having deliberately targeted cyclists and pedestrians before that.

However, his identity was revealed by the Metropolitan Police only a day later, on Wednesday, the BBC reports.

Salih Khater came to the UK back in 2010 as a refugee from the war-plagued region of Darfur in Western Sudan, and was granted asylum. In the past two years, Khater applied and was granted UK citizenship.

The car ramming attack suspect completed high school back in Sudan and then studied electrical engineering at university there. Subsequently, he spent time in Libya, possibly as a farm worker, before moving to the UK.

In 2010 – 2011, Khater studied English as a second or foreign language at City College, and in 2014 – 2017, he studied a diploma in science at South and City College in Birmingham.

More recently, Khater studied accountancy at Coventry University from September 2017 until May 2018, according to a spokesman for the university who also revealed the man is no longer enrolled there.

Khater is believed to have lived in the Sparkbrook area of Birmingham before moving to the city’s Highgate area four months ago.

Members of the Sudanese community have suggested he may have had an appointment at the Sudanese Embassy in London to obtain a visa for a trip to Sudan to see his parents which he intended to make, according to his brother.

According to the Birmingham Central Mosque, Khater did not worship at the mosque and had showed no signs of radicalization.

He is believed to have spent time as a security guard in Nottingham, and to have obtained a licence from the Security Industry Authority (SIA).

His brother Abdullah Khater described him as a “normal person” with no fanatical ideas, and no links to any religious group.

According to Abdullah Khater, their family was in “a state of shock” over the car ramming “terrorist incident” at the British Houses of Parliament.

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.

Scotland Yard has made it clear he has not cooperated with them after his arrest.

(Banner image: Salih Khater’s Facebook profile)