A British citizen kidnapped in a Texas synagogue – FBI Reuters

(Reuters) – The FBI has identified a hostage in a Texas synagogue as a British citizen who said earlier on Sunday that President Joe Biden had used guns taken from the streets to “commit an act of terror”.

The FBI has identified the man as Malik Faisal Akram, 44, who was killed Saturday night after his four hostages were safely released.

The incident in Colleyville, Texas, “was an act of terror,” Biden said, visiting Philadelphia with his first wife, Jill Biden, on a food bank packing carrots and apples to pay tribute to the legacy of the deceased civil rights leader. Martin Luther King Jr.

“Supposedly – I don’t have all the details, not even the chief prosecutor – but he said he allegedly took the weapons out into the street,” Biden said.

“When he landed he bought them and apparently there were no bombs we know … Apparently he spent the first night in a homeless shelter. I don’t have all the details yet, so I’m reluctant. I went into a lot more detail,” the president said.

On Saturday night, an FBI hostage rescue team attacked the Beth Israel congregation in Colleyville, 26 miles northeast of Fort Worth, and the gunman ended a 10-hour clash with police, disrupted Saturday’s service and took a rabbi and three. kidnapped by other people.

One of the hostages was released after being held for six hours and the other three were later released by the FBI.

Journalists on Saturday night said they heard the sound of explosions, possibly flash-bangs, and the sound of gunfire in the Jewish Reform Synagogue in Colleyville.

SWAT teams from the Colleyville Police Department responded to the synagogue with emergency calls around 10:41 a.m. on Sabbath service while they were broadcasting online. FBI negotiators soon opened a relationship with the man, who said he wanted to talk to a woman arrested in a federal prison.

The man was heard having a one-on-one phone conversation on a live broadcast on Facebook (NASDAQ :). The man could be heard talking and talking about religion and his sister, repeatedly saying he did not want to see anyone hurt, Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported.

The hostage was said to be the brother of Pakistani neuroscientist Aafia Siddiqui, who is serving an 86-year US prison sentence for shooting soldiers and FBI agents in 2010, and asked to be released, a US official told ABC News. .

Siddiqui is in a federal prison in the Fort Worth area. A lawyer representing Siddiqui, Marwa Elbially, told CNN in a statement that the man was not Siddiqui’s brother and that Siddiqui’s family had condemned his “shameful” actions.

Although the situation of the hostages in Texas seemed to be an isolated event, synagogues in New York and other parts of the country increased security in response.