The two men alerted the Elizabeth Police Department after noticing that the backpack, near Hector’s Place Restaurant, contained “wires and a pipe”, The New York Times reported.
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Late on Saturday, a powerful explosion rocked Manhattan’s popular Chelsea neighborhood when a pressure-cooker bomb packed with shrapnel detonated.
Earlier the mayor of the city of Elizabeth, Chris Bollwage, told journalists that two men walking near the train station had seen a package in a waste basket.
There were no reports of injuries. “Bomb techs from the FBI, Union County, and the New Jersey State Police have arrived on the scene and are now rendering the area safe”, the FBI said in a statement.
Bomb squad personnel stand around the scene of an explosion near the train station on Monday.
Amtrak partially suspended its service in the area due to police activity, the company said in a statement. Two men discovered a backpack with explosive devices inside on September 18, and one detonated as technicians attempted to disarm it.
Authorities have warned there could be more explosions in the coming days.
“They probably saved hundreds of people”, Bollwage said.
The device in Elizabeth, a city south of Newark, had been left in a backpack placed in a rubbish bin near a train station and a bar.
NJTV reported on its Facebook Live stream that the detonation of the first device happened when an Federal Bureau of Investigation robot tried to disable the device while cutting a wire at 1240 a.m. ET.
New Jersey Transit trains resumed service along the Northeast Corridor and North Jersey Coast Line, but there were some delays.
Train passengers reported being stuck on Amtrak and NJ Transit trains for hours Sunday night, while some trains moved in reverse to let passengers off at other stations.
Ahmad Rahami, 28, was shot and captured by cops after a huge man hunt for the alleged bomber after a series of explosive devices were found in NY and New Jersey.
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Investigators didn’t immediately say whether they thought the Elizabeth incident was connected to the blast in NY. On Saturday morning, a pipe bomb blew up in the New Jersey beach town of Seaside Park along the route of a running race.
