An inquest opened this morning into the death of the man behind the Dover firebomb attack.

The hearing, held at County Hall in Maidstone, gave Andrew Leak's cause of death as asphyxiation.

Leak, 66, threw three incendiary devices from his car window at the immigration centre at Western Jet Foil centre in Dover on Sunday, October 30.

Flames surrounded the hoarding of the site, with security staff rushing to extinguish the fire.

Only two small injuries were reported.

Leak, who had driven more than 100 miles from his home in High Wycombe to Dover, then drove to the BP garage in Limekiln Street, Dover and took his own life.

At the hearing, Bina Patel, area coroner for Mid Kent and Medway, read out a statement with further details.

She said Kent Police had been called at 11.22am by an immigration officer expressing concern about a man at the Western Jet Foil car park throwing objects at the gates and officers.

Miss Patel said: "He had then made his way to the BP garage and was found there at 11.30am.

"Police got there and found a Seat car registered to Mr Leak and he was the sole occupant."

Results for post mortem toxicology tests are pending.

The inquest heard Leak was a single and unemployed man.

Miss Patel said: 'I offer my condolences to the family and friends of Mr Leak."

She adjourned the inquest for a provisional date and time of 10am on Friday, January 27, at County Hall.

Following the attack at Dover, Leak's social media pages were found to be littered with tirades against asylum seekers, Muslims and the royal family.

A raid was carried out at his home and material found which made it necessary to draft teams from Counter Terrorism Policing South East (CPTSE) to take the lead.

Officers from CPTSE have now recovered evidence that indicates the attack was motivated by a terrorist ideology.

In their investigation, witnesses have been interviewed and a number of items of interest have been found, including digital media devices.

Evidence from examining these suggests there was an extreme right wing motivation behind the attack.

There is currently nothing to suggest the offender was working alongside anyone else and there is not believed to be any wider threat to the public.

The investigation is still ongoing.

Tim Jacques, senior national coordinator for counter terrorism policing, said: "This was clearly a very worrying incident and although nobody was seriously hurt, two people did sustain minor injuries.

"Increasingly in counter terrorism casework, across all ideologies, we are seeing individuals who have mental health concerns and a hateful mind-set.

"Assessing when this crosses the terrorism threshold is a complex process and needs to be carefully considered on a case-by-case basis. These decisions need to be determined by the facts, as far as they can be established at any given time.

"After considering the evidence collected so far in this case, whilst there are strong indications that mental health was likely a factor, I am satisfied that the suspect’s actions were primarily driven by an extremist ideology. This meets the threshold for a terrorist incident."