Police in the United States say a male suspect has been taken into custody after an attack that left multiple people with burns in Boulder, Colorado, in what the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) director described as a "targeted terror attack".
Eight people were injured on Sunday (Monday AEST) when a 45-year-old man yelled "Free Palestine" and threw incendiary devices into a crowd where a demonstration to remember the Israeli hostages who remain in Gaza was taking place, authorities said.
Four women and four men between 52 and 88 years old were taken to hospitals, Boulder police said.
Authorities had earlier said six people were injured. They said at least one of them was in a critical condition.
"As a result of these preliminary facts, it is clear that this is a targeted act of violence and the FBI is investigating this as an act of terrorism," FBI special agent in charge of the Denver Field Office, Mark Michalek, said.
Michalek named the suspect as Mohamed Soliman, aged 45. Solimon was hospitalised shortly after the attack.
FBI director Kash Patel described the incident as a "targeted terror attack" and Colorado attorney-general Phil Weiser said it appeared to be "a hate crime given the group that was targeted".
Israeli foreign minister Gideon Saar said on X he was shocked by the "terrible antisemitic terror attack". US Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer, a prominent Jewish Democrat, also described it as an antisemitic attack.
The attack took place on the Pearl Street Mall, a popular pedestrian shopping district in the shadow of the University of Colorado, during an event organised by Run for Their Lives, an organisation devoted to drawing attention to the hostages seized in the aftermath of Hamas' 2023 attack on Israel.
Boulder police chief Stephen Redfearn said he did not believe anyone else was involved in the attack.
"We're fairly confident we have the lone suspect in custody," he said.
In an earlier press conference, Redfearn stressed it was too soon to speculate about a motive, adding that the police were not yet calling it a terror attack.
Brooke Coffman, a 19-year-old at the University of Colorado who witnessed the Boulder incident, said she saw four women lying or sitting on the ground with burns on their legs.
One of them appeared to have been badly burned 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.
Attack follows Israeli embassy shootings
The attack comes just weeks after a Chicago-born man was arrested in the fatal shooting of two Israeli embassy employees in Washington, DC.
Someone opened fire on a group of people leaving an event hosted by the American Jewish Committee, an advocacy group that fights antisemitism and supports Israel.
The shooting fuelled polarisation in the United States over the war in Gaza between supporters of Israel and pro-Palestinian demonstrators.
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