A U.S. air marshal was quarantined in Houston on Monday after he was attacked with a syringe that may have contained a form of the Ebola virus. ABC News reports that the marshal was attacked Sunday night in an airport in Lagos, Nigeria prior to boarding a United Airlines Flight 143 to Houston, Texas.

The assailant reportedly injected the still unknown substance into the back of the marshal’s arm in an unprovoked attack. ABC states that the attacker ran away from the scene and could not be located, but the syringe and needle were found nearby.

Both the FBI and the CDC are involved in the case. The syringe was transported back to the U.S. on the same flight as the marshal who was attacked in Nigeria.

“The [air marshal] reported that the subject stuck him with a syringe and it is believed he was injected with an unknown substance.”

The federal air marshal, who was traveling with a team of marshals in Nigeria, was not detained from his flight out of Murtala Mohammed International Airport despite the fact that he was injected with a syringe that contained a substance that is still unknown.

ABC News reports, “Amid fears the substance could contain some form of the Ebola virus,” the marshal was quarantined and screened by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) after he arrived in Houston on Monday.

“Out of an abundance of caution, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention conducted an on-scene screening of the victim when United Flight 143 landed in Houston early Monday morning.”

CNN reports that the air marshal was immediately taken to an undisclosed location where he remains under quarantine. While the possibility of the syringe containing the Ebola virus is rumored, the CDC still has not released their findings.

The FBI issued a press release on Monday, stating that the U.S. air marshal did not “exhibit any signs of illness during the flight,” and passengers on United Airlines Flight 143 were not in danger.

FOX News reported on Monday that an alert was issued by the State Department after the air marshal and his team arrived in Houston Monday. An alert states that the victim consulted with both the consulate and doctors and was given precautionary medicine. It is not known at this time what the medication was, and if the possibility that the syringe contained the Ebola virus was ruled out.

This story is still developing and will be updated when new information is available.

[Image:Foxnews.com]