San Diego: Man arrested for shooting at synagogue during Passover celebrations

A man was detained in connection with a shooting at a synagogue in California on Saturday afternoon that caused injuries, the police said.

"A man has been detained for questioning in connection with a shooting incident at the Chabad of Poway synagogue. @SDSOPoway Deputies were called to Chabad Way just before 11:30 a.m. There are injuries. This is a developing situation," the San Diego Police took to Twitter as saying.

The police said that the shooting around 11:30 a.m. (local time) at the Chabad of Poway synagogue in Poway, California, about 25 miles north of San Diego.

The police said that there were injuries but that no additional details were immediately available. However, the San Diego County Sheriff's Department added that the wounded were shifted to Palomar Medical Center.

Derryl Acosta, a spokesman at Palomar Medical Center, told The New York Times that the hospital's trauma centre in Escondido, California, was expecting at least one patient and that one to four additional patients might also be on the way.

"Please respect the medical privacy of victims & their families during this difficult time. Remain clear of the area as this investigation will take several hours," the police tweeted.

The shooting comes on a day when the Jews are celebrating Passover, also called Pesach, a religious one of the holiest Jewish celebrations of the year, ending on Saturday.

The incident comes six months after the shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh happened on the same day.

Last year on October 27, Robert Bowers stormed the synagogue, killing 11 people in what the Anti-Defamation League said was the deadliest anti-Semitic attack in the history of the United States.

A federal law enforcement officer then had said that Bowers made anti-Semitic statements during the shooting and targeted Jews on social media.