Police in U.K. detain 2 teens in connection with Texas synagogue hostage-taking

A gunman who took four people hostage at a Texas synagogue and was himself killed as federal agents stormed the temple was identified on Sunday as a British citizen, and police in England said they had detained two teenagers for questioning.

The day-long siege at the Congregation Beth Israel synagogue in Colleyville, about 26 kilometres northeast of Fort Worth, ended Saturday night with all four hostages released unharmed and with the suspect dead. It was not clear whether the gunman took his own life or was slain by members of the FBI hostage rescue team.

During 10 hours of tense hostage negotiations conducted by authorities on either side of the Atlantic with help from the gunman's family, the suspect was reported to have demanded the release of a Pakistani-born scientist serving a federal prison sentence in the Dallas-Forth Worth area.

The FBI on Sunday identified the suspect as Malik Faisal Akram, 44, a citizen of the United Kingdom, but did not say how or when he entered the United States.

Akram's brother Gulbar posted on Facebook that the suspect, from the industrial town of Blackburn, in the north of England, suffered from mental illness and said the family had spent all night at the Blackburn police station "liaising with Faisal, the negotiators, FBI etc."

"There was nothing we could have said to him or done that would have convinced him to surrender," Gulbar wrote on the Blackburn Muslim Community's Facebook page.

He said the FBI was due to fly into the U.K. "later today," saying that the family as a result could say little more.

"We would like to say that we as a family do not condone any of his actions and would like to sincerely apologize wholeheartedly to all the victims involved in the unfortunate incident," the brother wrote.

Later on Sunday in England, the Greater Manchester Police issued a statement saying officers from Counter Terror Policing North West "have made two arrests in relation to the incident" in Texas. The two teenagers detained "remain in custody for questioning."

U.S. President Joe Biden, who was in Philadelphia with first lady Jill Biden for a visit commemorating the birthday of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., called the hostage-taking "an act of terror."

"Allegedly — I don't have all the facts, nor does the attorney general — but allegedly the assertion was he got the weapons on the street," Biden said.

"He purchased them when he landed and it turns out there apparently were no bombs that we know of. ... Apparently he spent the first night in a homeless shelter. I don't have all the details yet so I'm reluctant to go into much more detail," the president said.

Saturday's siege began in late morning, disrupting Sabbath services as the suspect took the rabbi and three other people hostage. One hostage was released unharmed after six hours and the remaining three were freed later either shortly before or during the raid by the FBI's hostage rescue team.

SWAT teams from the Colleyville Police Department responded to the synagogue after emergency calls began at about 10:41 a.m. during the Sabbath service. FBI negotiators soon opened contact with the man, who said he wanted to speak to a woman held in a federal prison.