Police say one hostage has been released uninjured from a Dallas-area synagogue where a man had been holding four people.
The Colleyville Police Department said the man was released shortly after 5 p.m. Saturday. He was expected to be reunited with his family soon and did not require medical attention.
FBI crisis negotiators were continuing to communicate with the man who took the hostages, police said.
More to come
This is a breaking update. A previous version of this story can be read below.
Authorities say a man apparently took hostages on Saturday during services at a synagogue near Fort Worth, Texas.
The Colleyville Police Department tweeted on Saturday afternoon that it was conducting SWAT operations at the address of Congregation Beth Israel, northeast of Fort Worth.
At least four hostages were believed to be inside the synagogue, according to two law enforcement officials who were not authorized to discuss the ongoing investigation and who spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity.
FBI Dallas spokesperson Katie Chaumont said an FBI SWAT team was also at the scene and that crisis negotiators had been communicating with someone inside the synagogue. But she could not say whether the person was armed and she declined to describe what the person had said to authorities, citing operational sensitivity.
Police were first called to the synagogue at about 11 a.m. local time and people were evacuated from the surrounding neighbourhood soon after that, Chaumont said.
There have been no reported injuries, Chaumont said.
‘An evolving situation’
“It’s an evolving situation, and we have a lot of law enforcement personnel on scene,” Chaumont said.
Law enforcement shut down access to the roads surrounding the synagogue on Saturday afternoon.
The services were being live streamed on the synagogue’s Facebook page for a time.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki tweeted the U.S. President Joe Biden had been briefed on the situation in Colleyville.
.<a href=”https://twitter.com/POTUS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>@POTUS</a> has been briefed about the developing hostage situation in the Dallas area. He will continue to receive updates from his senior team as the situation develops. Senior members of the national security team are also in touch with federal law enforcement leadership.
—@PressSec
“He will continue to receive updates from his senior team as the situation develops,” Psaki said. “Senior members of the national security team are also in touch with federal law enforcement leadership.”
Colleyville, a community of about 26,000 people, is about 23 kilometres northeast of Fort Worth.
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said he was monitoring the situation closely. “We pray for the safety of the hostages and rescuers,” he wrote on Twitter.
Israel’s consul general in Houston is on her way to the scene of the incident, Foreign Minister Yair Lapid said in a statement, adding that Israeli officials “are in close contact with American law enforcement agencies.”
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