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Texas state: Hostages free themselves from synagogue

2022-01-17T19:54:10.101Z


During the special forces operation in a synagogue in the US state of Texas, the perpetrator died at the weekend. The hostages owe their successful escape to the rabbi.


Enlarge image

Police operation in the US city of Coleyville: The perpetrator holed up with his hostages for several hours

Photo: Brandon Wade / dpa

When the hostages were taken in a synagogue in the US state of Texas, the detainees said they were able to free themselves in the end.

One of the hostages, Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker, said Monday in an interview with CBS television that when he saw an opportunity, he threw a chair at the perpetrator and fled with the other hostages.

They could have freed themselves “without a single shot being fired”.

A man - according to police a 44-year-old Briton - had taken Cytron-Walker and three other people hostage on Saturday at the synagogue in Colleyville near Dallas. A hostage was released early Saturday night. The other detainees were only released a few hours later. All four were unharmed. The perpetrator died. Originally it was said that special forces had entered the church and freed the hostages. The police have not yet commented in detail on the circumstances surrounding the end of the hostage-taking and have also left it open how exactly the perpetrator died.

US media, citing investigators, reported that the hostage-taker wanted to free a Pakistani scientist imprisoned in Texas. She was arrested in Ghasni, Afghanistan, in July 2008 and sentenced to 86 years in prison by a US federal judge in 2010 for an attack on US soldiers in Afghanistan. During interrogation at a police station, she took a gun lying on the ground and aimed it at a US soldier and a translator, without hitting them. The woman had studied at an elite university in the USA. Later, US authorities added her name to a list of suspects linked to al-Qaeda terrorists.

Cytron-Walker said the situation had deteriorated in the final hour of the kidnapping.

The perpetrator did not get what he wanted.

"It didn't look good," said the rabbi.

"We were very afraid." When the opportunity presented itself, they fled.

According to the rabbi, the hostage-taker did not force his way into the synagogue.

He knocked on a door and asked to be let in – probably on the pretext that he was looking for shelter.

Cytron-Walker said he let the man in, made him some tea and chatted with him.

At that moment he didn't notice anything suspicious.

Only during the service that followed, when he was standing with his back to the man, did he hear a click.

"And it turned out to be his weapon." The rabbi emphasized that he and the other hostages were not physically injured.

But the situation was very threatening: “We are still processing it”.

muk/dpa

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2022-01-17

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