Two UK teenagers were on Monday being questioned by counter-terrorism detectives as police and MI5 joined the FBI in probing the Texas synagogue siege in which an armed British hostage taker was shot dead.
The unnamed pair were arrested in Manchester on Sunday night over their links to Malik Faisal Akram, a 44-year-old from Blackburn who held four people inside the Congregation Beth Israel synagogue in the Dallas suburb of Colleyville during an 11-hour stand-off, in what US President Joe Biden described as “an act of terror”.
Akram was known to police and had a criminal record and a history of mental health problems, his brother said, and is understood to have flown to the US two weeks ago and bought weapons locally.
During the attack he was heard making threats and claiming to have a bomb, as he called for the release of a female Pakistani neuroscientist jailed in the US after being convicted of trying to kill American military officers in Afghanistan.
Dramatic footage of the end of the siege shows three people running from the synagogue pursued by a man apparently carrying a gun who then retreats inside before armed officers storm the building and a loud bang and shots are heard.
On Monday, as investigators on both sides of the Atlantic tried to learn more about Akram’s background, counter-terrorism police and spies here were trying to ensure that he was not part of any wider plot, as well as whether he was assisted and how he was inspired.
One line of investigation is Akram’s mental health.
His brother Gulbar said that Akram had suffered from mental health problems in a statement on Facebook in which he apologised to the victims for their ordeal.
Gulbar later told Sky News that Akram had a history of offending, and questioned how he managed to get into the US. “He’s known to police. Got a criminal record. How was he allowed to get a visa and acquire a gun?” he said.
The siege is the third recent alleged terrorist attack involving a UK resident following the fatal stabbing of Sir David Amess in Southend-on-Sea in October and the bomb blast at the Liverpool Women’s Hospital the following month.
Both cases raised concerns about whether potential radicalisation was going undetected during coronavirus lockdowns. Another focus of the investigation into Akram’s actions will be whether there might have been opportunities to detect his extremist intent and prevent what happened. Officials today said they were unable to comment for now because the FBI is leading the international probe and due to it being at an early stage.
Meanwhile, further details of the siege were emerging. It began between 10am and 11am local time after Akram entered the synagogue by reportedly posing as a homeless man and began threatening those inside attending a service, which was being livestreamed.
One Texas resident watching the footage, which was eventually taken down, said she heard a man ranting against America, claiming he had a bomb, and making an increasing number of threats as he became angrier.
Audio footage also captured a man, apparently Akram, talking volubly, saying “I’m gonna die” and “You get my sister on the phone” as he demanded the released of Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani neuroscientist known as “Lady al Qaeda” who is serving an 86-year prison sentence in the US following a conviction for trying to kill American military officers in Afghanistan.
Akram was shot dead by armed officers and all the hostages were freed unharmed. The synagogue’s rabbi, Charlie Cytron-Walker, one of those held, said: “I am grateful to be alive.”
