Salih Khater: Westminster 'terror suspect' was kicked out of UK university just months ago after failing accountancy degree

The suspected terrorist accused of ploughing into cyclists outside the Houses of Parliament had recently been kicked out of university, it has emerged.

Sudanese immigrant Salih Khater, 29, who is currently being questioned by police over the Westminster attack, was forced out of Coventry University after failing the first year of his accountancy course. 

More details have begun to emerge about the suspect, who lived in a small flat in Birmingham and described himself as a shop manager who loved Western pop music and football.

Addresses in the Midlands were being searched on Tuesday night as police investigated Khater, who was arrested on suspicion of preparing an act of terror. Police revealed on Wednesday that he was later further arrested on suspicion of attempted murder.

Sources have confirmed that he was granted asylum in Britain a decade ago and was granted citizenship earlier this year. 

Khater is believed to have travelled through the night before waiting in Westminster for more than an hour-and-a-half before mowing down cyclists in the heart of Westminster on Tuesday morning.

As rush-hour began, he swerved onto the wrong side of the road and hit cyclists who were waiting at the traffic lights. He then crashed into barriers outside the entrance to the House of Lords. 

Kicked out of university after failing first year

Khater was previously an accountancy student at Coventry University - but was kicked out when he failed the first year of his course.

A spokesman for the university said: "Salih Khater studied accountancy at Coventry University between September 2017 and May 2018.

"As of May 2018 he is no longer enrolled at the university."

The spokesman added: "Salih Khater failed the first year of his course therefore his enrolment was terminated."

Farmers' son who moved to UK five years ago

He had previously studied electrical engineering at Sudan University of Science and Technology in Khartoum.

Before that he went to school in Wad Madani, a town in east central Sudan, where his parents were sorghum farmers.

According to friends Khater had moved to the UK about five years ago, and became a citizen.

His social media profile showed he liked pop stars Celine Dion and Rihanna, and the rapper Eminem, along with Sudanese music.

Posts about music, in English and Arabic, were interspersed with others showing mosques and desert landscapes. Khater had more than 300 friends on Facebook.

In 2010, he posted a series of music videos including Celine Dion performing Because You Loved Me in Memphis.

He posted another video of Eminem and Rihanna's Love The Way You Lie.

Khater also supported Al-Merrikh SC, a football club based in Omdurman, Sudan.

He went silent on Facebook

By 2011 friends on social media began wondering where he was and asking if he was OK, after he went silent.

In November that year Khater wrote: "Everybody had idea to say something and i will promise i will not disappear again and i will to be close to all my friend and i apologise for that thing."

After that he posted only a few desert pictures, the last on July 17 this year.

About four months ago he moved out of a flat over an internet cafe where he had been staying alone in the Sparkbrook area of Birmingham.

Police have been to the Bunna Internet cafe and taken away a computer, and other items in plastic bags. 

Khater moved to another flat in Hall Green, Birmingham but was reportedly seen regularly at the internet cafe, including on the day before the attack.

According to people there, he rarely conversed. One said Khater's father and brother had died within a short space of time. His former landlord said he always paid his rent on time.

A local barber, who did not want to be named, told The Telegraph: “He always comes to the Sudanese coffee shop next door. I think the last time I saw him was last week."

Not known to MI5 or Scotland Yard

He was not known to MI5 or Scotland Yard, and had no criminal record or affiliation to terrorist groups.

The silver Ford Fiesta he drove had failed an MOT over deficiencies including defective headlights and hand brake, and been written off last year. However, it was sold two months ago.

It was registered to a council flat in Peveril Street, Nottingham.

Six Sudanese people had lived at that address for the last year, and police have searched the flat.

Was it a 'copycat' attack?

The suspect had driven from his home in Birmingham before allegedly using his car as a weapon, raising question as to whether it was an attempted "copycat" of the attack launched by Khalid Masood a year earlier which had killed six people.

Masood had lived just ten minutes from the suspect's home in the Sparkbrook area of Birmingham, before travelling to London to carry out his attack.

Security sources are keen to establish if there is a connection between the pair.

Video: Minute-by-minute, how the crash unfolded

Before the attack Khater is believed to have driven through the night from Birmingham to London and then travelled around areas including Westminster, Whitehall and Tottenham Court Road.

Police are investigating whether Khater, who was known to have been in Westminster since 6am, may have been on a reconnaissance mission and was spooked into taking immediate action at 7.37am when an ambulance pulled up behind him with sirens blazing. 

Questions over mystery white van

Officers are also facing questions over a mystery white van which was seen behind the Ford Fiesta driven by the suspect.

Another van was seen stopping on the other side of the road in the seconds after the crash.

Police and security sources insist the driver was not being followed, however they confirmed an unmarked police van was in the area at the time of the incident.

They did not respond to questions of whom the van belonged to.

'He was just deadpan': what witnesses saw

Witnesses described an emotionless driver ploughing through cyclists.

Kirsty Moseley, of Brixton, south London, was a passenger in the first car behind the cyclists, who "were thrown everywhere" after being struck at what she estimated was 25mph.

Ms Moseley, 31, added: "He (the driver) wasn't shouting anything, he wasn't screaming, he didn't look crazed or out of control - he was just deadpan."

Jason Williams, from Kennington, was walking to work when he saw the crash.

"It didn't look like an accident. How do you do that by accident? It was a loud bang," the 45-year-old said.

Ring of steel and concrete barriers

The Houses of Parliament are surrounded with security barriers of steel and concrete.

The measures were extended in the wake of the Westminster Bridge attack in March 2017 when Khalid Masood ploughed a car into crowds on Westminster Bridge, killing four people.

Masood abandoned his car then stabbed and killed unarmed Pc Keith Palmer before he was shot by an armed officer in a courtyard outside Parliament.

The terrorist threat against the UK is seen as unprecedented.

The latest incident came as the Government launched an apparent defence of the security services by releasing figures showing there has been a sharp rise in suspected terrorism plots, with live investigations rising from "more than 500" in March to 676 by the end of June.

Met Police chief: Westminster could be pedestrianised to stop vehicle attacks

Westminster could be pedestrianised in a bid to ward off vehicle attacks - terrorists' "weapon of choice", Britain's most senior police officer said.

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick praised officers' courage as they leapt into action following the "ghastly" crash at the Houses of Parliament.

Over the past year and a half Westminster has become a target for attack from a variety of motivations, including terrorist activity, Ms Dick said on Wednesday morning.

She said: "You will notice that the security around parliament both in terms of armed officers and police officers and physical barriers has been further enhanced over the last several months and there is more to come on that in further months.

"Whether that area outside should be pedestrianised further, there should be further physical works done, I think is a matter that will be discussed no doubt between parliamentary authorities, us, the intelligence agencies and indeed the local authorities and the mayor."