It remains unclear whether the suspicious backpack in Elizabeth was connected to any of those events. Police provided no specific description of the men who they said took the bag.
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Meanwhile, law enforcement was already reviewing surveillance video of the area where the explosion occurred looking for clues, CBS station WCBS reported.
Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor service was operating on a modified schedule Monday morning. A second device, believed to be a pressure cooker, was later found four blocks away on West 27th Street and was safely removed early Sunday, according to the New York Police Department.
FBI investigators were to examine remnants of the bomb plus an unexploded device found four blocks away and another device that exploded about 80 miles (130 km) away in New Jersey on Saturday to see if they were connected, Cuomo said.
Crime scene investigators work at the scene of Saturday’s explosion in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood, in New York, Sunday, Sept. 18, 2016.
She wouldn’t provide further details, but a government official and a law enforcement official who were briefed on the investigation said five people in the auto were being questioned at an FBI building in lower Manhattan.
New York Mayor Bill De Blasio and other city officials asked Sunday afternoon for the public to have patience, stressing that the investigation had only just begun – and that while investigators could determine that the blast was “criminal” and “intentional”, they hadn’t nailed down a suspect or a motive.
While concluding that the Saturday night explosion in Manhattan was likely an act of terrorism, according to New York Governor Cuomo, authorities are yet to link the NYC blast with a similar incident that happened hours earlier in New Jersey. A second device was found several blocks away and handled by the NYPD bomb squad.
The 23rd St bomb contained residue of the explosive Tannerite, an Federal Bureau of Investigation official said, a substance used for target practice that can be picked up in many sporting goods stores.
Ahmad Khan Rahami, the man suspected in bombings in NY and New Jersey, is now in custody after a shootout with police, CNN reported.
Cell phones were discovered at the site of both bombings.
Elizabeth Mayor Christian Bollwage says county authorities told him that the officers shot in Linden are expected to be OK. The pipe bomb exploded in Seaside Park, New Jersey, before a charity 5K race to benefit Marines and sailors.
One New Yorker hopes to make their days at least a little easier.
Witnesses say the explosion blew out the windows of businesses and scattered debris in the area, but officials said no evacuations were necessary.
But separate USA media reports, citing officials off the record, say both devices had flip phones and Christmas lights as makeshift detonators.
Police have established a security perimeter on 23rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues, in midtown Manhattan, where no vehicle traffic or pedestrians access is allowed, while they are continuing to gather evidence at the scene of the explosion. The explosion left many rattled in a city that had marked the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks a week earlier.
All 29 people who were wounded in the explosion, mostly by flying shrapnel and debris from the explosion, have been treated and released from hospital, officials said. “It was extremely loud, nearly like thunder but louder”, said Rudy Alcide, a bouncer at a nightclub near the blast.
“Then all of a sudden, vehicle horns went off, and I thought, ‘Oh, my God, this isn’t lightning”.
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“It was so loud”, the 32-year-old Alam said.
