Eight people were injured at a demonstration in Colorado, following an attack by a man with a makeshift flamethrower and petrol bombs.
Run for Their Lives, an organisation devoted to calling for the immediate release of the hostages seized on October 7, were protesting in Boulder, when an attacker threw the devices into a crowd and shouted “free Palestine.”
The Colorado attack comes amid escalating tensions in the United States over Israel's war in Gaza, which has led to both a rise in antisemitic hate crimes and pro-Palestinian protests being labelled antisemitic by US officials.
Trump’s administration has detained protesters without charge and cut funding to elite U.S. universities that have allowed these demonstrations.
Here’s everything we know about the Colarado attack so far.
What happened?
The attack took place on the Pearl Street Mall, a four-block pedestrian mall in Boulder, near the University of Colorado, at around 1.26pm on Sunday.
Brooke Coffman, a 19-year-old at the University of Colorado who witnessed the Boulder incident, described seeing a man whom she presumed to be the attacker standing in the courtyard shirtless, clutching a glass bottle of clear liquid and shouting.
“Everybody is yelling, 'get water, get water,’” Ms Coffman said.
Police chief Steve Redfearn said that police were informed that "people were being set on fire,” with injuries ranging from "very serious" to "more minor.”
"When we arrived we encountered multiple victims that were injured, with injuries consistent with burns," Mr Redfearn said.
Another eyewitness, who wanted to remain anonymous, said he saw the suspect chuck Molotov cocktails - a makeshift bomb made from a bottle filled with petrol and a piece of cloth to use as a fuse.
He said: "It was very strange to just hear a crash on the ground of a bottle breaking and then it sounded like a boom and then people started yelling and screaming.”
The anonymous witness added: "The attacker came out from the bushes and the trees... he threw another cocktail, and on the second one he lit himself on fire - I imagine accidentally.
"He seemed to have a bullet proof vest on, or some kind of vest, and then a shirt underneath it.
"And after he lit himself on fire he took off the vest and the shirt and he was shirtless.”
In a statement, Run for Their Lives, said the walks have been held weekly since October 7, “without any violent incidents until today”.
Who is the suspect?
The suspect is Mohamed Soliman, 45, according to Mark Michalek, the FBI special agent in charge of the Denver Field Office. Soliman was hospitalised shortly after the attack.
Boulder Police Chief Stephen Redfearn said he did not believe anyone else was involved. “We're fairly confident we have the lone suspect in custody,” he said.
Soliman is an Egyptian national who overstayed his visa following entry to the US under the previous administration, according to Fox News, citing three Homeland Security and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement sources.
The report said that Soliman arrived in the US on August 27, 2022, and was meant to leave by February 2, 2023, but he reportedly never left.
Stephen Miller, Trump's deputy chief of staff, said on X that the incident was further evidence of the need to “fully reverse” what he described as “suicidal migration”.
Who was injured?
Four women and four men between the ages of 52 and 88 were rushed to hospitals following the attack, according to Boulder police.
Brooke Coffman, the 19-year-old eyewitness, said she saw four women lying or sitting on the ground with burns on their legs. One of them seemed to have been badly burned on the majority of her body and had been wrapped in a flag by someone, she said.
Was it a hate crime?
FBI Director Kash Patel has described the Boulder incident as a “targeted terror attack”, and Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser said it seemed to be “a hate crime given the group that was targeted”.
According to Mark Michalek, the FBI special agent in charge of the Denver Field Office, “ the FBI is investigating this as an act of terrorism.”
