Two more people were arrested and detained for questioning Wednesday in connection to the hostage crisis at Congregation Beth Israel, police in Great Britain said.
Greater Manchester police said on Twitter that officers arrested two men in Manchester. Police did not release their identities or why police believed the men were connected to the case.
#UPDATE | Counter Terrorism Policing North West update following the events in Texas: pic.twitter.com/QDZraZWLSf
— Greater Manchester Police (@gmpolice) January 26, 2022
Two men were also arrested on Thursday — one in Birmingham and one in Manchester. The men remained in custody Friday, according to police. Police have not released details about why those two men were arrested or what connection, if any, that have to the hostage crisis.
Greater Manchester police had previously detained two teens in connection with the incident, but they were later released. NBC News reported the teens were the sons of hostage-taker Malik Faisal Akram.
Richard Hyde, the Houston-based British consul general for Texas and four other states, has told The Dallas Morning News it is common for British law enforcement to make arrests in the immediate aftermath of such a crime, even if just to collect information.
He has said similar arrests or detentions could happen in the coming weeks as the investigation unfolds.
Akram, 44, took four people hostage at gunpoint, including Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker, inside the Colleyville synagogue during a Shabbat service broadcast online on Jan. 15.
He held the group captive for more than 11 hours before the hostages were able to escape unharmed and Akram was killed by FBI agents.
Authorities have since called Akram’s actions “a hate crime and an act of terrorism.”
Akram, of Blackburn in Lancashire, England, arrived in the U.S. on a flight to New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport on Dec. 29. It is unclear how he got from New York to Texas.
The White House has said that Akram entered the country without any flags being raised. A British security force had reportedly placed Akram on a watch list as a “subject of interest” in 2020 and investigated him in the second half of that year.
Akram stayed in at least three Dallas-Fort Worth homeless shelters and a motel while in the state.
President Joe Biden has said that Akram may have purchased a gun “on the streets,” possibly at a homeless shelter.
