No-one was injured in the blast on Ocean Avenue in the town of Seaside Park, which happened shortly before 3,000 runners were due to take part in a charity race to benefit USA marines.
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Al Della Fave, spokesman for Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office, said the devices in the bin were “wired together” but did not all detonate.
But officials won’t say if they believe the incident in Seaside Park on Saturday was terror-related or if it had any connection with an explosion that rocked Manhattan Saturday night, injuring 29 people.
A federal law enforcement official told the AP on Sunday that the FBI was evaluating a claim of responsibility for the New York City bombing on the social blogging service Tumblr. He said he did not know what, if anything, was found in the unattended backpack that had delayed the start of the race.
Devices in both explosions included cell phones.
The running race was about to begin when an explosion around 9:30 a.m. rang out.
A charity 5K race was cancelled because of the explosion and subsequent search, according to the race website.
Francis Larkin, left, chief of the Seaside Park Police Department joins Brad Cohen, the acting special agent in charge of the FBI’s field office in Newark, N.J., at a news conference in front of the Seaside Park Police Depar.
The third annual Semper Five run, named for the US Marines motto “semper fidelis”, “always loyal”, was canceled and the immediate area was put on lockdown. Investigators said the motive of the pipe bomb wasn’t immediately clear. The devices contained different materials and didn’t appear to be connected, officials said, but added that they weren’t ruling anything out yet.
“It was extremely loud, nearly like thunder but louder”, said Rudy Alcide, a bouncer at a nightclub near the blast. Some other community events went on as planned in nearby towns on Saturday, though officials said security at those sites had been stepped up in the wake of the blast.
“The race had not started yet down at the Jersey Shore, so we’re very fortunate that no one was injured here”, Christie told CNN. Results from past years’ races listed more than 700 finishers.
About 5,000 people were set to run the 5 km charity race in Seaside Park, a family-oriented resort known for its beachside boardwalk, a local NBC affiliate reported.
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At the 2013 Boston Marathon, two brothers of Chechen ethnicity who professed allegiance to Islamist militants planted homemade bombs near the finish line of the renowned race.
