Greater Manchester Police issued a statement saying that the police had arrested two people in connection with the hostage-taking incident at the synagogue in Texas in the United States and that they were “under custody for questioning”.
US President Joe Biden described the hostage-taking as an “act of terrorism”. Biden was in Philadelphia with first lady Jill Biden to commemorate the birth of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) confirmed that the hostage-taker who was killed in the synagogue was a British citizen, after President Joe Biden said the man used weapons to commit an “act of terrorism”.
The office said the hostage-taker was named Malik Faisal Akram, 44, and he was killed after four hostages were safely released on Saturday evening.
Akram’s brother Galbard posted on Facebook that his brother, who is from the industrial city of Blackburn in northern England, suffers from a mental illness. He added that family members spent the entire night at Blackburn Police Station “in contact with Faisal, negotiators, the FBI and others.”
“There was nothing we could say or do that would persuade him to surrender,” he added on the Blackburn Muslim Community’s Facebook page.
He said FBI delegates were due to arrive in the UK “later today”, adding that the family could say no more as a result.
An FBI hostage rescue team stormed the Beth Israel compound in Colville, 26 km northeast of Fort Worth, ending a 10-hour standoff with police.
One of the hostages was released unharmed after being held for six hours, then the FBI team released the remaining three safely either shortly before or during the attack.
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