The latest New Jersey investigation is underway amid heightened tensions after a blast in New York’s Chelsea neighbourhood injured 29 people Saturday, four blocks from the discovery of a second bomb that was defused safely and sent to authorities for examination.
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Bollwage told reporters earlier that local police received reports from two men who claimed they found a suspicious package with a pipe and wires coming out.
Federal investigators in Quantico, Virginia, are examining evidence from Saturday’s explosions in New Jersey and NY.
On Sunday night, police blew up the device, rendering it safe.
Authorities are questioning several people as they try to determine any possible connection between an explosion in a bustling New York City neighborhood, an unexploded pressure-cooker device found blocks away and a pipe bomb blast in New Jersey.
An official told Fox News on Sunday that the bombs in New Jersey and NY were “from the same person” and the devices in both explosions included mobile phones.
Earlier on Saturday, there was an explosion at Seaside Park, New Jersey, which was timed to disrupt a Marine Corps charity run. “Based on the loudness, I think people could have been severely hurt or injured if they had been in the vicinity”.
The FBI looked into NY bombing suspect Ahmad Khan Rahami two years ago after his father expressed concerns his son might be a terrorist, law enforcement officials said Tuesday. When they saw wires and pipes they left the bag and walked to a police station to report it, according to Bollwage.
Earlier on Sunday, New York Mayor Mayor Bill de Blasio said: “Was it a political motivation?”
The FBI on the scene of an apartment in Elizabeth on Monday, Sept. 19, 2016.
Rahami, 28, was arrested on Monday following a shootout with police in Linden, New Jersey. Investigators found similarities between the explosives used in both states, according to multiple law enforcement officials, but authorities said they have not concluded the incidents are linked.
Rahami wasn’t on any terror or no-fly watch lists, though he had been interviewed for immigration purposes while traveling between the USA and Afghanistan, one of the law enforcement officials said. The FBI was working to disarm the other four devices. “No Amtrak trains are operating on the Northeast Corridor between NY and Trenton, NJ for the time“.
The heightened alert comes as world leaders are gathering Monday for the United Nations General Assembly. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the bombs had some similarities but provided no other details.
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“I want New Yorkers to be confident when they go back to work on Monday that NY is up and running and we’re doing everything that we need to do”, he said.
