Attack on UK immigration centre ‘terrorist’ incident, police say | News

The firebombing of a treatment center in an English town was “motivated by terrorist ideology”, police say.

British police say a petrol bomb attack on an immigration center in Dover last week was motivated by far-right ideology.

No one was seriously injured on October 30 incident in the southern English port city, and police said Andrew Leak, 66, who was found dead at a nearby petrol station shortly after the attack, apparently acted alone.

“Counter Terrorism Policing South East (CTPSE) … has recovered evidence indicating that the attack on an immigration center in Dover on Sunday October 30, 2022 was motivated by terrorist ideology,” the body said in a statement on Saturday.

“There is currently nothing to suggest the offender was working alongside anyone else and there does not appear to be a broader threat to the public,” the police statement read.

Tim Jacques, senior national counter-terrorism co-ordinator, added that while there were “strong indications that mental health was likely a factor”, he concluded that “the suspect’s actions were primarily motivated by extremist ideology”. .

These have reached the “threshold of a terrorist incident”, he said.

Homemade incendiary devices were thrown at the Western Jet Foil Border Force center in Dover on Sunday, resulting in two minor injuries.

Dover Immigration Center is the first stop for thousands of people who have made the dangerous journey across the English Channel to seek asylum in the UK.

Immigration has become a hot political issue in Great Britain.

Since the start of the year, an unprecedented 38,000 people have made the perilous journey, the government’s select Home Affairs Committee announced on October 26.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the UK is a compassionate and welcoming place for asylum seekers, but that depends on the country’s ability to effectively control its borders.

Earlier this week, UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman sparked outrage – and was reprimanded by the new UN rights chief – for describing the arrivals as an “invasion”.