COLLEYVILLE, TEXAS: A law enforcement officer walks across an intersection near the Congregation Beth Israel synagogue on January 15, 2022 in Colleyville, Texas. Police responded to a hostage situation after reports of a man with a gun was holding people captive at the synagogue. - AFP pic
COLLEYVILLE, TEXAS: A law enforcement officer walks across an intersection near the Congregation Beth Israel synagogue on January 15, 2022 in Colleyville, Texas. Police responded to a hostage situation after reports of a man with a gun was holding people captive at the synagogue. - AFP pic

WASHINGTON: All hostages were released after a gunman held four people at a synagogue in the US state of Texas, reported Anadolu Agency (AA).

"Prayers answered. All hostages are out alive and safe," Texas Governor Greg Abbott wrote on Twitter, Saturday.

The gunman was said to have entered the Congregation Beth Israel synagogue in Colleyville during a Shabbat morning service, Dallas Morning News reported.

CNN, citing a law enforcement official, said a rabbi was among the hostages.

ABC News identified the alleged gunman as Muhammad Siddiqui, who claimed to be the brother of Aafia Siddiqu, who was charged with attempting to kill US soldiers and FBI agents during her interrogation in Afghanistan in 2008.

According to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), Aafia was unjustly convicted of a crime that she did not commit and given an 86-year federal sentence.-- BERNAMA