British media is reporting that the suspect in the Houses of Parliament crash — that is being treated as a terrorist incident — is a 29-year old British citizen of Sudanese origin named Salih Khater.

The suspect is in police custody after his arrest on suspicion of preparing an act of terror.

Press Association reported on Wednesday that 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.

Police flooded central London and cordoned off the city's government district on Tuesday after a speeding car ploughed into cyclists and crashed outside the Houses of Parliament.

Counter-terror detectives are working to uncover the motive behind what they suspect is the fourth vehicle attack in Britain in 18 months.

The same area was the site of a terror attack in March 2017 when Khalid Masood ploughed a car into crowds on Westminster Bridge, killing four people. Masood abandoned his car and then stabbed and killed a police officer before being shot dead in a courtyard outside Parliament.

Less than three months later, a van rammed into pedestrians on London Bridge before three men abandoned the vehicle and attacked weekend revellers in the nearby Borough Market. Eight people were killed and 48 injured in the attack.

On June 19, 2017, a man drove a van into a crowd of worshippers leaving a mosque in north London, killing one man and injuring eight others.