Photo: The Canadian Press

British authorities said Wednesday they are considering turning the area around Parliament into a pedestrian zone to prevent future vehicle attacks as police searched three properties for clues about the motivation of a man who plowed a car into cyclists and pedestrians, injuring three.

Suspect Salih Khater, a 29-year-old British citizen of Sudanese origin, was arrested at the scene of Tuesday's crash on suspicion of "the commission, preparation and instigation of acts of terrorism," police said.

Police said later he was also suspected of attempted murder.

British authorities do not name suspects until they are charged but media and neighbours said the arrested man was Khater. Police confirmed the suspect was a 29-year-old British man originally from Sudan.

Police said they had finished searching an apartment where the suspect had lived in the central England city of Birmingham, as well as another property in the city and a third in Nottingham. They continued to search a third Birmingham property.

A Facebook page for a man of the same name says he lives in Birmingham, works as a shop manager, and has studied at Sudan University of Science and Technology. Coventry University in central England said Khater had studied accounting there between September 2017 and May 2018 but was no longer enrolled.

Ahmed Abdi, a neighbour of Khater in Birmingham, said he recognized him from news footage, "and I was shocked."

"He was very, very quiet and he never spoke to anybody. He would say nothing to nobody," Abdi said.

London's Metropolitan Police force said the suspect was not known to counterterrorism officers or the intelligence services.

The suspect was being held at a London police station as detectives traced the movements of the Ford Fiesta which careered across a road, hitting cyclists and pedestrians, then crashed into a security barrier at Parliament. Three people were injured, but none remains in hospital.

Detectives say the car was driven from Birmingham to London late Monday, and drove around the area near Parliament for an hour and a half on Tuesday morning before the rush-hour crash.

The incident appears to be the second in less than 18 months in which a vehicle has been used to attack the heart of Britain's government. Over the past two decades authorities have tightened security around Parliament with fences, crash barriers and armed police.

Now the rise of vehicle attacks around the world is triggering calls for traffic to be barred from Parliament Square, currently a busy traffic route.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan told the BBC that the plan presented challenges, but "it's possible to have a design solution that meets the objectives ... in relation to keeping our buildings and our people as safe as we can do, but also not losing what's wonderful about our city which is a vibrant democracy."