Parliament car crash - as it happened: Police search three properties as focus falls on terror suspect after 'appalling incident'
UK's terror threat level remains 'severe', Theresa May says, meaning fresh attack is highly likely
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Your support makes all the difference.Counter-terror police searched three properties in the Midlands after a car crashed into security barriers outside the Houses of Parliament, injuring three people.
Three police forces were involved in raids in Birmingham and Nottingham on Tuesday afternoon following the arrest of a 29-year-old British man on suspicion of terror offences.
Armed officers had swarmed Westminster at about 7.40am on Tuesday, when a silver Ford Fiesta ploughed into cyclists and pedestrians outside parliament before being halted by security barriers.
Images posted to social media showed a man, wearing a black puffer jacket and surrounded by officers, being led away in handcuffs from the hatchback. Detectives said later on Tuesday they believed the car had been driven to London from Birmingham overnight.
The Fiesta was spotted in the Tottenham Court Road area at 1.25am, the Metropolitan Police said, where it remained until about 6am. It was then driven to Westminster.
“There was not a police car in pursuit of the vehicle” when it crashed, Neil Basu, the Met’s head of counter-terrorism, told reporters.
Three people were hurt in the crash, one seriously.
Theresa May said that terrorists would “never succeed” in dividing the UK, after Donald Trump blamed “crazy animals” for the attack in a tweet.
The crash was an “appalling incident”, the prime minister said, adding that the terror threat facing the country remained “severe”, meaning another attack was highly likely.
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