The words are chosen. The British police have described the attack with incendiary devices on a reception center for migrants in Dover, southern England, as a “terrorist act” on Saturday. “After reviewing the evidence gathered to date, and while there is strong evidence that mental health (of the suspect) is certainly a factor, I am convinced that the suspect’s actions were primarily motivated by ideological extremism, which meets the definition of an act of terrorism.” equivalent,” said Tim Jacques, Britain’s senior counter-terrorism police officer, as quoted in a press release.
Several incendiary devices were thrown at a migrant reception center in Dover at around 12.20pm last Sunday. The suspect had traveled alone by car before starting the devices. Two officers were slightly injured and 700 migrants had to be temporarily escorted to another location.
“A right-wing extremist motivation”
Suspect Andrew Leak, a 66-year-old man from High Wycombe, north-west London, was found dead in his car shortly after the attack. According to the British press, he would have ended his life, which the authorities have not yet officially confirmed.
The findings of the investigations collected so far “suggest that there was a right-wing extremist motivation behind this attack,” explains the anti-terrorist police in their press release. “There is currently no evidence that the man involved worked with anyone else and nothing to suggest a broader threat existed at this time,” police said.
The attack comes as the UK sees a record number of migrant arrivals on the country’s south coast in small boats, with nearly 40,000 having already made the dangerous Channel crossing since the start of the year, far more than in all of 2021.