Eight people were injured with some burnt on Sunday when a man with a makeshift flame-thrower attacked a crowd calling for the release of Gaza hostages at a mall in Colorado, in what the FBI called a “targeted terror attack”.
The FBI said the suspect, who has been taken into custody, is 45-year-old Mohamed Sabry Soliman, but provided no further details about him.
The attack took place in the city of Boulder at the outdoor Pearl Street Mall, where a group of people had gathered to call for the release of hostages held in Gaza. Police received calls saying a person there had a weapon and had been trying to set people on fire.
“This attack happened at a regularly scheduled weekly peaceful event,” FBI agent Mark Michalek told reporters. “Witnesses are reporting that the subject used a makeshift flame-thrower and threw an incendiary into the crowd,” he said, adding that “the suspect was heard to yell: 'Free Palestine.'”
Witnesses at the scene told CBS's Colorado affiliate that the attacker had thrown Molotov cocktails at people in the area. Several victims who reportedly had signs of burns had been taken to hospital, with some of the injuries believed to be life-threatening, police said.
The suspected attacker was also taken to hospital, with minor injuries, law enforcement said.
“This act of terror is being investigated as an act of ideologically motivated violence based on the early information, the evidence and witness accounts,” Deputy FBI director Dan Bongino said on X.
The attack is believed to have been directed at a Run for their Lives event, sponsored by Denver-based non-profit group Jewishcolorado. The recurring event focuses on raising awareness of the hostages still being held in Gaza.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Jewish Democrat, said it was an anti-Semitic attack.
“This is horrifying, and this cannot continue. We must stand up to anti-Semitism,” he said on X.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement that the victims were attacked “simply because they were Jews” and that he trusted US authorities would prosecute “the cold blood perpetrator to the fullest extent of the law”.
“The anti-Semitic attacks around the world are a direct result of blood libels against the Jewish state and people, and this must be stopped,” he said.
White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller posted on X that the suspect was a foreign national who “illegally overstayed [his] visa”.
In a video circulating on social media, a shirtless man waving two bottles filled with liquid can be seen near the site of the attack. He repeatedly shouts “how many children have you killed” and “end Zionists” as people attend to the injured lying on the ground nearby. People can be heard reporting the attacker's alleged actions to police.
Photos accompanying the social media posts show the man being detained.
Boulder Police Chief Steve Redfearn told reporters that it was too early to discuss a motive but that witnesses were being interviewed.
Colorado attorney general Philip Weiser said the attack appears to have been a hate crime. Several blocks of the mall area were evacuated, police said.
Colorado governor Jared Polis said in a statement that “hate-filled acts of any kind are unacceptable”. He said it was “unfathomable that the Jewish community is facing another terror attack here in Boulder”.
The attack occurred as law enforcement authorities in the US struggle with a sharp rise in anti-Semitic violence.
It comes about a week after a man was arrested over the fatal shooting of two Israeli embassy staff members in Washington. He shouted “free Palestine” as he was led away by police.
