Rabbi threw the chair before fleeing to the kidnapped Texas synagogue

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A rabbi among four Jewish congregations held captive in a Dallas synagogue said Monday that he and others managed to escape after throwing a chair at the guerrilla receiver and then running to an exit door.

A ten-hour siege on Saturday at the Beth Israel Congregation Synagogue in Bethlehem Synagogue, west of Dallas, Texas, resulted in the release of four people who were shot dead and the suspect was killed. It is unclear whether the gunman took his own life or was killed by members of a rescue team kidnapped by the FBI.

The suspect, who was identified by the FBI as a British citizen, knocked on the door of the synagogue during Saturday prayers and was invited and offered tea, as Rabbi Charlie Cytron Walker, one of the detainees, told CBS.

Walker then returned to prayer, and then “heard a click – and it could have been anything – but saw that it was his gun.”

A hostage, 44-year-old Malik Faisal Akram, was released without harm after a six-hour negotiating tension with his family.

Still held captive with the other two, Walker said he used the training of the FBI hostages to try to escape and decide when to escape.

“When I saw that he was not in a good condition, the two gentlemen who were still with me were ready to go, and I made sure that the exit was not far away.” said Walker.

“I told him to go. I threw a chair at the gunsmith, and I headed for the door, and the three of us came out without even a shot.”

FBI guerrillas searched the synagogue, and Akram was killed. Police in England say they have arrested two teenagers for questioning.