LONDON (AP) — U.K. police were given extra time Saturday to question four people arrested on suspicion of terror offenses after an attack on a synagogue in northwest England that left two people dead and Britain’s Jewish community shocked and grieving.
Two other people who had been arrested were released without charge.
Jihad Al-Shamie, 35, was shot dead by police on Thursday outside the Heaton Park Congregation Synagogue in Manchester after he rammed a car into pedestrians, attacked them with a knife and tried to force his way into the building.
Congregation members Melvin Cravitz, 66, and Adrian Daulby, 53, died in the attack on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish year. Police say Daulby was accidentally shot by an armed officer as he and other congregants barricaded the synagogue to block Al-Shamie from entering. Three other men are hospitalized with serious injuries.
Detectives say Al-Shamie, a British citizen of Syrian origin who lived in Manchester, may have been influenced by “extreme Islamist ideology.” He wore what appeared to be an explosives belt, which was found to be fake.
Police said that Al-Shamie was on bail over an alleged rape at the time of the attack, but hadn’t been charged.
Three men and three women were arrested in the greater Manchester area on suspicion of the “commission, preparation and instigation of acts of terrorism,” as police work to determine whether the attacker acted alone. A court on Saturday granted police five more days to hold four of the suspects: men ages 30 and 32, and women ages 46 and 61. An 18-year-old woman and a 43-year-old man were released with no further action, police said.
Police haven’t identified those arrested or disclosed their links to Al-Shamie.
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