A 29-year-old man detained over a suspected terrorist attack outside parliament has been further arrested for attempted murder, police said on Wednesday.

He had initially been arrested on suspicion of terrorism offences after he appeared deliberately to drive his car at cyclists and pedestrians before ramming it into barriers outside the parliament building on Tuesday morning.

Police confirmed media reports that the man is a UK national originally from Sudan. He has been named by a security source as Salih Khater.

“We are satisfied that we know the identity of the arrested man,” police said in a statement. “The priority of the investigation team continues to be to understand the motivation behind this incident.”