UK: Dover immigration center hit by petrol bombs — police

British police said Sunday that a suspect threw petrol bombs at a migrant processing center in the southern port of Dover.

One person was reportedly injured in the attack.

A police statement said "two to three incendiary devices" were thrown at the facility.

It added that the suspect had been "identified, and very quickly located at a nearby petrol station, and confirmed deceased." They did not say how the individual had died.

Police said they were not treating it as a terrorist incident and were keeping an open mind.

Public broadcaster BBC cited the Home Office as saying the attack took place at the Western Jet Foil Border Force center used to process asylum-seekers.

Video posted online by a GB News journalist showed staff at the center putting out a small fire outside the building's wall.

The Kent Fire and Rescue Service later said the fire at the site had been extinguished.

No further details were immediately available.

Channel crossings pose a challenge for the UK government

The Conservative MP for Dover, Nathalie Elphicke, said on Twitter that she was "deeply shocked."

UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman tweeted that there was a "distressing incident" and said she was "receiving regular updates on the situation."

"My thoughts are with those affected, the tireless Home Office staff and police responding," she added. 

The incident comes at a time when UK policy towards migrants and asylum-seekers has turned into a heated political issue. 

Braverman has backed a plan for migrants crossing the English Channel illegally to be sent to Rwanda, a program that currently faces legal hudles.

Dover is the main arrival port for such migrants crossing the Channel from France in boats. The number of people making the perilous journey has climbed in recent years, with 40,000 people using that route to reach the UK so far this year. That's up from 28,000 in all of 2021, and 8,500 in 2020.

nm/jcg (Reuters, AFP, AP)