DETROIT, March 13 — An unidentified assailant was killed yesterday after ramming his pickup truck into a synagogue on the outskirts of Detroit, Michigan, causing a blaze and triggering a huge police response.

Security guards opened fire on the attacker after he smashed through the doors of the Temple Israel synagogue in West Bloomfield, Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard told reporters.

At a news conference yesterday evening, Bouchard said no synagogue staff or children were hurt in the attack, but 30 law enforcement officers were “taken to the hospital for smoke inhalation” after the evacuation efforts.

The FBI will investigate the incident “as a targeted act of violence against the Jewish community,” Jennifer Runyan, special agent in charge of the federal agency’s Detroit field office, told reporters yesterday.

Law enforcement has not yet publicly detailed a motive for the attack, but it comes amid heightened security across the United States following the launch nearly two weeks ago of the US-Israeli war on Iran, which has since broadened to the Middle East.

US media reported yesterday that the attacker was believed to be of Lebanese descent.

President Donald Trump called the attack “terrible” and said it was “absolutely incredible that things like that happen.”

The synagogue attack came on the same day as a shooting at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, which FBI Director Kash Patel said was being investigated as “an act of terrorism.”

Patel, in a post on X, said the university attack left one person dead and two others wounded. “The shooter is now deceased thanks to a group of brave students who stepped in and subdued him,” he said.

Single assailant 

Bouchard said the Michigan assailant rammed the Temple Israel building with his vehicle and then drove down a hallway, where he was engaged by security guards.

“We can’t say what killed him at this point, but security did engage the suspect with gunfire,” the sheriff said.

He added that the assailant appeared to be alone in the vehicle and that police dogs were checking the car for explosives.

“It’s been complicated because there’s some fire,” he said. “We’re through an abundance of caution, clearing the vehicle for IEDs or any explosives.”

The sheriff said a security guard was injured by the assailant’s truck and was being treated in hospital.

Smoke could be seen billowing from Temple Israel, one of the largest Reform Judaism congregations in the country, after the attack.

Law enforcement officers and emergency personnel raced to the area in large numbers soon after the incident.

‘Shocked’ 

Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer condemned what she called a “heartbreaking” attack.

“Michigan’s Jewish community should be able to live and practice their faith in peace,” she said. “Antisemitism and violence have no place in Michigan.”

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump had been briefed about the situation.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said he was “shocked by the attack.”

“We are in contact with the Jewish community and local authorities,” Saar said on X. “Antisemitism must never be allowed to rear its ugly head.”

Bouchard said Oakland County law enforcement had been on high alert since the start of the US-Israeli war on Iran nearly two weeks ago.

“We’ve been talking for two weeks about the potential, sadly, of this happening,” Bouchard said. “So there was no lack of preparation.

“All Jewish facilities in the area are going to have a lot of extra presence around it until we figure this out,” he said. — AFP