FBI Dallas spokeswoman Katie Chaumont said an FBI SWAT team was also at the scene and crisis negotiators were communicating with someone inside the synagogue.
Authorities said a man apparently took hostage during services at a Texas synagogue on January 15, where the suspect could be heard shouting angrily in a livestream before the feed was cut out.
The Colleyville Police Department tweeted Saturday afternoon that it was conducting a SWAT operation at the Beth Israel Congressional address northeast of Fort Worth.
At least four hostages were believed to be inside the synagogue, according to two law enforcement officers who were not authorized to discuss the ongoing investigation and who they spoke to. The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. One of the officials said the synagogue’s rabbi is believed to be one of the hostages.
Officials are still trying to ascertain the exact motive of the attack. One of the law enforcement officials said the hostage-taker was heard demanding the release of Afiya Siddiqui, a Pakistani neuroscientist with ties to al-Qaeda who pleaded guilty to trying to kill US military officers detained in Afghanistan went. Siddiqui is lodged in a federal prison in Texas.
Law enforcement officials said investigators did not positively identify the person and cautioned that the information was based on preliminary investigations as the situation was still rapidly evolving.
FBI Dallas spokeswoman Katie Chaumont said an FBI SWAT team was also at the scene and crisis negotiators were communicating with someone inside the synagogue. But she could not say whether the man was armed and declined to describe what she had told officials, citing operational sensitivity.
Ms Chaumont said police were first called to the synagogue around 11 a.m. and people were evacuated from the surrounding areas soon after.
Ms Chaumont said no one was reported injured.
“This is an emerging situation, and we have a lot of law enforcement personnel,” Ms Chaumont said.
Law enforcement closed access to the streets around the synagogue on Saturday afternoon.
The services were being livestreamed on the synagogue’s Facebook page for some time. Fort Worth Star-Telegram It is reported that at times an angry person can be heard shouting and talking about religion during the livestream, which does not show what was happening inside the synagogue.
Shortly before 2 pm, the man said, “You have to do something. I don’t want to see this guy dead.” Moments later, the feed cut off.
The man, who used profanity, repeatedly referred to his sister, Islam, and thought he was about to die, star-telegram Reported.
Collyville, a community of about 26,000 people, is about 15 miles (23 kilometers) northeast of Fort Worth.
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said he was closely monitoring the situation. “We pray for the safety of the hostages and the rescuers,” he wrote on Twitter.
Israel’s consul general in Houston is en route to the scene of the incident, Foreign Minister Yair Lapid said in a statement, adding that Israeli officials are “in close contact with US law enforcement agencies”.
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