British police have arrested two men in Manchester, in the northwest of England, in connection with the investigation into the hostage-taking at a synagogue in Texas, USA.
Manchester police announced on Twitter that the men are being held for questioning. In the same investigation, two men were arrested in Manchester and Birmingham on January 20 but were released without result.
The US FBI identified 44-year-old Briton Malik Faisal Akram as the hostage-taker at a synagogue in Coleyville, a city of about 23,000 residents 40 kilometres from Dallas. Police shot Akram dead on January 15 after the four hostages escaped unharmed.
According to British media, Akram, who lives in Blackburn, was vetted by domestic intelligence agency MI5 in 2020. He decided that the man was not dangerous.
However, the man had wanted to die as a martyr for “two years”, according to a conversation with his brother that the newspaper The Jewish Chronicle had reported.