The Muslim British man who was shot dead after taking four people hostage at a synagogue in Texas had been on the radar of MI5, Sky News understands.
The Security Service began looking into Malik Faisal Akram, 44, in the second half of 2020 to assess whether he posed a security threat, a Whitehall source said.
The suspicion that had been raised about him was related to Islamist terrorism.
He had also been in prison four times, between 1996 and 2012, for a range of offences including violent disorder, harassment and theft, Sky News understands.
Akram, who was from Blackburn in Lancashire, took four people, including a rabbi, hostage at the Congregation Beth Israel synagogue in Colleyville, Texas, on Saturday.
He is said to have demanded the release of Pakistani neuroscientist Aafia Siddiqui, who was convicted of trying to kill US army officers in Afghanistan, and is in prison in Texas.
Akram was shot dead by an FBI SWAT team 10 hours into the stand-off and all four hostages were released unharmed.
Read more: Sky
