The suspect of a deadly attack outside the UK parliament in London was British-born, Prime Minister Theresa May has said, as police arrested eight people after several overnight raids across the country.
In a statement to the House of Commons on Thursday, May said the attacker was once investigated by intelligence officers over concerns of “violent extremism”.
“He was a peripheral figure,” she said. “The case is historic, he was not part of the current intelligence picture.”
Earlier on Thursday, police said eight people had been arrested after raids on six homes in London, Birmingham and other parts of the country in their probe into the attack, in which a man ploughed into pedestrians in a car and then went on a stabbing spree before being shot dead.
Mark Rowley, acting deputy commissioner at the Metropolitan police, also revised down the number of victims to three from four.
UK police seek answers after Westminster attack
“It is still our belief that the attacker acted alone was inspired by international terrorism,” Rowley said.
Some 40 people were wounded in the attack, 29 of whom were being treated in hospital, he added. Seven were still in critical condition.
Rowley said there was a mix of nationalities among the dead but gave no details. The victims were Keith Palmer, a 48-year-old police officer who was stabbed to death, and two members of the public – a woman in her mid-40s and a man in his mid-50s.
The fourth dead was the attacker.
Al Jazeera’s Barnaby Phillips, reporting from London, said: “The absolute priority of the police at this point in time would be to know what sort of accomplices, if any, the assailant had. What sort of assistance, if any, did the assailant have and whether he belonged to any sort of network.”
