‘Targeted terror attack’: Multiple victims burnt with makeshift flamethrower

Boulder, Colorado: Eight people were injured when a man with a makeshift flamethrower allegedly yelled “Free Palestine” and threw an incendiary device into a group that had assembled in Boulder, Colorado to raise attention for Israeli hostages in Gaza, law enforcement officials said.

FBI leaders immediately declared the attack on Sunday afternoon (Monday AEST) an act of terrorism and the US Justice Department denounced it as a “needless act of violence, which follows recent attacks against Jewish Americans”.

Police arrested a 45-year-old man at the scene, whom the FBI identified as Mohamed Sabry Soliman of Colorado Springs. Authorities said they believed Soliman, who was hospitalised shortly after the attack with minor injuries, acted alone and no other suspects were being sought.

The attack took place on the Pearl Street Mall, a popular pedestrian shopping district in the shadow of the University of Colorado, during a regular event organised by Run for their Lives, an organisation devoted to drawing attention to the hostages seized in the aftermath of Hamas’s 2023 attack on Israel.

The four women and four men wounded in the incident were aged from 52 and 88, and their injuries ranged from serious to minor, officials said.

Law enforcement officials dress in protective gear to investigate after an attack in Boulder.Credit: AP

The incident unfolded against the backdrop of a war between Israel and Hamas that continues to inflame global tensions and has contributed to a spike in antisemitic violence in the United States. Across the country, the New York Police Department said it has upped its presence at religious sites throughout the city for the Jewish holiday of Shavuot.

Boulder Police Chief Steve Redfearn said police received multiple emergency calls about 1.40pm on Sunday saying “there was a man with a weapon and people were being set on fire” on Pearl Street, near the county courthouse.

Witnesses told authorities that a man used a makeshift flamethrower and threw an incendiary device into the crowd, said Mark Michalek, special agent in charge of the FBI’s office in Denver.

Video from the scene shows a witness shouting, “He’s right there. He’s throwing Molotov cocktails”, as a police officer with his gun drawn advances on a bare-chested suspect with containers in both hands.

FBI director Kash Patel described the incident as a “targeted terror attack”, and Colorado Attorney-General Philip Weiser said it appeared to be “a hate crime given the group that was targeted”. But Redfearn stressed it was too soon to speculate about a motive.

“We are looking and actively interviewing victims and witnesses to see if that group [of demonstrators] was targeted, or others. We just don’t have those answers yet,” Redfearn said.

“This was a beautiful Sunday afternoon in downtown Boulder, on Pearl Street, and this act is unacceptable.”

Lisa Effress, 55, who has lived in Boulder for 17 years, was across the street having lunch with her daughter when she heard sirens and ran towards the courthouse.

Law enforcement officers investigate after the attack.Credit: AP

“It looked like a war zone,” Effress, who often attends the walks supporting the hostages when in town, told The New York Times.

“I have always taught my daughter: be proud to be Jewish. Don’t be afraid. But in a time like this, it is crazy to think we will ever be walking again. It’s dangerous, it’s not safe for us.”

Lynn Segal, 72, was among about 20 people who gathered for the walk. They had finished their march in front of the courthouse when a “rope of fire” shot in front of her and then “two big flares”.

She said the scene quickly turned chaotic as people worked to find water to put out flames and find help.

Police have blocked off Boulder’s shopping district while they investigate.Credit: AP

Brooke Coffman, a 19-year-old at the University of Colorado, said she saw four women lying or sitting on the ground with burns to their legs. One of them appeared to have been badly burnt on most of her body and had been wrapped in a flag by someone, she said.

She described seeing a man whom she presumed to be the attacker standing in the courtyard shirtless, holding a glass bottle of clear liquid and shouting.

“Everybody is yelling, ‘Get water, get water’,” Coffman said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement on Monday saying he, his wife and the entire nation of Israel were praying for the full recovery of the people wounded in the “vicious terror attack” in Colorado.

“This attack was aimed against peaceful people who wished to express their solidarity with the hostages held by Hamas, simply because they were Jews,” Netanyahu said.

Police cordon off Pearl Street following an incident that the FBI is investigating as an act of terror.Credit: Getty Images

US Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a prominent Jewish Democrat, and Colorado Governor Jared Polis said they were closely monitoring the situation.

“This is horrifying, and this cannot continue. We must stand up to antisemitism,” Schumer said, while Polis said, “hate-filled acts of any kind are unacceptable”.

The attack comes just weeks after a Chicago-born man was arrested over the fatal shooting of two Israeli embassy employees in Washington, DC, after an event hosted by the American Jewish Committee, an advocacy group that fights antisemitism and supports Israel.

The shooting has fuelled polarisation in the US over the war in Gaza between supporters of Israel and pro-Palestinian demonstrators.

The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing about 1200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting about 250 others. They still hold 58 hostages – about one-third believed to be alive – after most of the rest were released in ceasefire agreements or other deals.

Israel’s military campaign has killed more than 54,000 people in Hamas-run Gaza, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not say how many of the dead were civilians or combatants.

Reuters, AP

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