Six elderly people have been injured after a man used a makeshift flamethrower to attack demonstrators in the US state of Colorado as they demanded the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza, AFP reports.

The FBI called the assault a “targeted terror attack,” identifying the suspected perpetrator, who has been taken into custody, as 45-year-old Mohamed Sabry Soliman, but providing no further details about him.

The White House deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller, posted on X that the man was a foreign national who “illegally overstayed [his] visa.”

“This attack happened at a regularly scheduled weekly peaceful event,” FBI agent Mark Michalek confirmed to reporters.

“Witnesses are reporting that the subject used a makeshift flamethrower and threw an incendiary into the crowd,” he said, adding that “the suspect was heard to yell: “Free Palestine!”

In one video, apparently of the attack, a shirtless man holding clear bottles in his hands is seen pacing as the grass in front of him burns.