Five suspects are being questioned in connection with an explosion which rocked NY on Saturday, it has been reported.
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Meanwhile, the federal authorities were also investigating whether the NY blast had any links to the suspicious backpack, containing “multiple explosive devices”, that was found at a train station in New Jersey today.
On Monday Ahmad Khan Rahami, a 28-year-old United States citizen of Afghan descent, was arrested after a shootout with police.
Gov. Cuomo Monday morning said he believes there was likely a foreign connection to the Chelsea bombing and that investigators are starting to focus on an individual suspect.
“Rahami is a U.S. citizen of Afghan descent born on January 23, 1988, in Afghanistan”.
The investigation comes after 29 people were injured in a blast in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighbourhood.
“You set up two bombs in New York City, that’s terrorism, with an intent to cause damage and danger and intimidate a civilian population”.
A second, unexploded bomb was found several blocks to the north, on West 27th Street, during a subsequent sweep of the vicinity. Authorities say more than two dozen people have been taken to hospitals with injuries, none of which are thought to be life threatening.
A pipe bomb earlier exploded in a New Jersey coastal town ahead of a charity race on Saturday morning.
Earlier today, the Federal Bureau of Investigation found five explosive devices at a train station in New Jersey.
Bureau investigators stopped the auto, which an FBI spokeswoman referred to as a “vehicle of interest in the investigation”, on Sunday night, the Associated Press reports.
“He wanted me to tell the people of New York City how much he admired the resilience of the people [here], how our people handled this crisis from moment one, with strength and resilience”, the mayor said.
NY governor Andrew Cuomo said 1,000 additional law enforcement officers were being deployed after the Saturday night blast in Chelsea, a primarily residential neighbourhood on Manhattan’s west side that is known for its art galleries and large gay population.
Officials have been sifting through evidence retrieved from the scenes of the blasts in NY and New Jersey, a stabbing spree in Minnesota, and a backpack loaded with explosive devices discovered in Elizabeth, N.J.
The explosion in Elizabeth occurred hours after similar explosives detonated in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan and Seaside Park, NJ. The devices in New Jersey were made with pipe bombs; the New York City devices involved pressure cooker bombs.
“This was an explosive” containing as many as five devices, Bollwage said. “A pressure cooker is not that hard”, said May.
The explosion came just after 8:30 p.m. ET at 133 W. 23rd St., between Sixth and Seventh Avenues.
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Also on Saturday, a man who authorities say referred to Allah wounded nine people in a stabbing rampage at a Minnesota mall before being shot to death by an off-duty police officer.
