DETROIT — A man has been killed after he rammed his vehicle into a synagogue in the Detroit metropolitan area in Michigan Thursday afternoon, according to authorities.Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard told reporters the suspect drove his vehicle through the doors of Temple Israel synagogue in West Bloomfield and then down a hallway before his vehicle caught fire.Security guards at the synagogue had opened fire as he approached and then confronted him inside. One who was hit by the vehicle is being treated at hospital and is expected to recover, authorities said.The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said the incident is being investigated as a “targeted act of violence against the Jewish community”.FBI Director Kash Patel described as an “apparent vehicle ramming and active shooter situation”.The assailant was later found dead in the vehicle, which caught fire. The cause of death was not immediately clear.The Department of Homeland Security has identified the suspect as Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, a 41-year-old naturalised US citizen who was born in Lebanon and came to the US in 2011.Video of the incident showed a massive police response and smoke coming from the building.Authorities said they were still sweeping the site for any explosives.Thirty police officers were taken to the hospital for smoke inhalation as the building was “engulfed” in flames, the Oakland County sheriff said. He added that the investigation would uncover what had ignited the fire.Temple Israel, one of the largest reform Jewish synagogues in the US, also has a preschool where dozens of children had to be evacuated during the incident.Students were evacuated and taken to a nearby country club, Temple Israel said in a statement on Facebook. The school’s 140 students as well as “our amazing staff, our courageous teachers, and our heroic security personnel” were all accounted for and safe, according to the statement.Bouchard called the crime a “hateful, terrible thing”, but did not elaborate on a specific motive.”We know there’s evil in the world,” Bouchard said at an evening press conference. “When they show up, that’s where training and preparation come in.”White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said US President Donald Trump had been briefed on the situation.Speaking at a White House event on Thursday, Trump said he wanted to “send our love to the Michigan Jewish community and all of the people in Detroit”.”It’s a terrible thing,” he said.In a post on X, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer called the incident “heartbreaking”.“Michigan’s Jewish community should be able to live and practice their faith in peace,” she said.The Jewish Federation of Detroit sent a message to its followers online to avoid approaching the synagogue.“Our Jewish agencies are currently in precautionary lockdown,” the federation wrote on Facebook. “We ask community members to stay away from the area at this time.”The incident comes amid heightened fears of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia following the outbreak of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza in 2023 and the start last month of a new Israeli and US military campaign against Iran.A law enforcement official told reporters on Thursday that a general alert had been put out for sensitive locations since the outbreak of the war with Iran, but no specific threats were known to have been made against the Temple Israel Synagogue.The Temple Israel Synagogue was established in 1941 and currently has about 12,000 members, according to its website.
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