Ahmad Khan Rahami, the man wanted in connection with bombings in NY and Seaside Park, New Jersey, is also believed to be connected to pipe bombs found Sunday night in Elizabeth, New Jersey, sources said.
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Update 1.15pm: New York’s governor has now said the Manhattan bombing could be an act of terrorism with a foreign connection.
Cellphones were discovered at the site of both the NY and New Jersey bombings, but no Tannerite residue was identified in the New Jersey bomb remnants, in which a black powder was detected, said the official, who wasn’t authorized to comment on the investigation and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.
The shootout happened Monday in Linden, New Jersey. The address of a home searched by Federal Bureau of Investigation agents in Elizabeth this morning is linked to a person with a similar name. Rahami is a US citizen of Afghan descent.
An explosive device left near a train station in Elizabeth, blew up earlier on Monday when a bomb squad robot cut a wire on the mechanism, one of as many as five potential bombs found at the site, the city’s mayor said.
Surveillance video taken from three cameras at a local gym show the moment when an explosion rocks the Manhattan neighbourhood of Chelsea.
New Yorkers will see an increased police presence around the city, de Blasio said.
Trains resumed Monday morning after the New Jersey Transit suspended service going through Elizabeth station on Sunday night. One of the devices exploded as a bomb squad used a robot to try to disarm it. A forensic examination of the device and its components will be conducted at the FBI Laboratory at Quantico, Virginia. A pipe bomb also exploded Saturday in Seaside Park, N.J., ahead of the race for Marines and sailors, but no one was injured.
“We don’t believe at this time that there’s any evidence connecting it to the attacks in NY or Minnesota”, Christie said on CNN.
“We’re not at a conclusive point yet, but more and more indications suggest a connection between NY and New Jersey”, the mayor added. A police officer went to investigate and recognized the man as Rahami, police and the mayor said.
NY police, the FBI and the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives converged on the site for their first daylight view of the explosion, closing several blocks of West 23rd Street to traffic. The FBI’s NY field office confirmed a traffic stop had been conducted, but added that no charges had been made.
A law enforcement official told The Associated Press that a second device that officers were investigating four blocks from the scene appeared to be a pressure cooker attached to wiring and a cellphone. The Manhattan blast took place on West 23rd Street around 8:30 p.m. Saturday in an area frequented by shoppers and diners.
On Sunday, Cuomo had effectively ruled out a link to worldwide terrorism, saying there was no evidence to suggest that. “We hadn’t heard from ISIS, et cetera, we didn’t have a suspect who was from foreign origin, so that was the open question”. “We will not allow these type of people and these type of threats to disrupt our life in New York”, Cuomo said. “No group had taken accountability”. Republican candidate Donald Trump told an audience, “We better get very tough, folks”. “We will find that out today or in the coming days”. “Can’t go into a lot of detail on that, but I can safely say that that stop of that vehicle was helpful and important”, de Blasio said.
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A homeland security official told Reuters news agency on Monday that the five devices found in New Jersey early on Sunday night were connected to Saturday’s blast in Manhattan. A similar, unexploded device, was found a few blocks away later that night. The first incident of the weekend was Saturday morning, when an apparent improvised explosive device was set off in Seaside Park, New Jersey, a beach town about 90 miles south of New York City. Because of delays to the start of the run, the explosion occurred in an area without many people in it.
