The 28-year-old is a naturalized citizen from Afghanistan.
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On the day suspicious backpacks containing five explosive devices were found in New Jersey’s Elizabeth city, the NY police said on Monday they are looking for an Afghan national for the Chelsea bombing that injured 29 persons.
The explosion in Manhattan on Saturday injured 29 people. A pressure cooker device was also found blocks away, but it didn’t explode. “We have no reason to believe they’re connected”. No one was injured in the blast.
– The FBI described Rahami as a USA citizen of Afghan descent with a last known address in Elizabeth, New Jersey – the same city where an explosives-laden backback was found Sunday night. There were no immediate reports of any injuries or damage.
New Jersey Transit service was suspended early Monday between Newark Liberty Airport and Elizabeth, and New Jersey-bound Amtrak trains were being held at New York Penn Station, officials said.
Amtrak said 2,400 passengers were affected, but that schedules returned to normal Monday morning.
“The City wanted a way to update New Yorkers quickly with official information after several incidents occurred in 2007, such as: tornadoes, a steam pipe explosion, and crane collapses”.
Ahmad Khan Rahami of Elizabeth, N.J., was captured after firing at police officers in Linden, N.J., about 20 miles outside New York, Elizabeth Mayor Chris Bollwage said.
The devices in Elizabeth were discovered by two men scavenging for valuables in the bin.
Police were attending an emergency after multiple explosive devices were found in a suspicious package at the Elizabeth Train Station.
The remaining four devices in the backpack will be transferred in protective cases to a local site and then will be taken to the Federal Bureau of Investigation laboratory at Quantico, Virginia, Bollwage said. The FBI was leading the investigation and working to disarm the other four devices. They reported the backpack to police when they “saw wires and pipes” coming from the pack. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the bombs had some similarities but provided no other details.
“I’m extremely concerned for the residents of the community, but more importantly extremely concerned for everyone in the state and country where someone can just go and drop a backpack into a garbage can that has multiple explosives in it with no timers and then you have to wonder how many people could have been hurt”, Bollwage said.
Reporters for NJ.com and NBC reported the blast shortly after 12:30 a.m. Monday.
Bollwage, who said the device was not connected to a cell phone, said it was moved away from the train station and was being examined when it detonated. It wasn’t immediately clear if the apartment had any connection to the blast.
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Bollwage said police are speculating that the bomb maker had discarded the backpack found in Elizabeth to get rid of evidence as he was fleeing the city.
