Rabbi and worshippers held hostage at Texas synagogue

A rabbi and several worshippers are being held hostage by a man at a synagogue in Texas.

A SWAT team and FBI officers have been called to the incident at Congregation Beth Israel synagogue in Colleyville.

The hostage taker has reportedly told authorities he wants the release of Aafia Siddiqui from a federal prison.

Siddiqui, 49, was convicted in 2010 of attempting to kill US officers in Afghanistan and is currently being held at FMC Carswell in Fort Worth, Texas.

White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said President Joe Biden “has been briefed about the developing hostage situation” and “will continue to receive updates from his senior team as the situation develops”.

Israel’s prime minister, Naftali Bennett, said he was “closely monitoring” the situation, adding: “We pray for the safety of the hostages and rescuers.”

Dara Nelson, a police sergeant for Colleyville Police, said there were no injuries to report and that officers had evacuated the area.

“The FBI negotiators are the ones who have contact with the person in the building,” Sgt Nelson said, adding there was “no threat to the general public”.

Audio of the initial hostage incident was caught on a morning Shabbat service which the synagogue was livestreaming on Facebook.

Although no images of inside the building were broadcast, the audio recorded a man shouting angrily, according to multiple reports.

At least four hostages including the rabbi were believed to be inside the synagogue, according to two law enforcement officials who spoke to the Associated Press news agency on the condition of anonymity.

Siddiqui is currently imprisoned just over 15 miles away from the synagogue in Colleyville.

Law enforcement officials in Texas are attempting to establish whether the suspect is related to Siddiqui.

According to the Department of Justice, Siddiqui “was detained by Afghan authorities [in 2008], who found a number of items in her possession, including handwritten notes that referred to a ‘mass casualty attack’ and that listed various locations in the United States, including Plum Island, the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty, Wall Street, and the Brooklyn Bridge.”

The DoJ said that Siddiqui was being held in an unsecured fashion, behind a curtain, when she grabbed a US Army office’s rifle and used it to shoot members of the team interviewing her, injuring an FBI agent and another US Army officer.