Police in New Jersey detonated a suspicious package early monday in Elizabeth, New Jersey after a series of attacks in various places that shook the US over the weekend.
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– Commuters using Amtrak service along the northeast corridor will experience major delays Monday due to investigations centering on explosive devices found in parts of NY and New Jersey. The two men who found the backpack thought it might contain something valuable, but they alerted police when they saw wires and a pipe on the devices, the mayor said.
There was no immediate report of injuries or damage.
“We want to get this guy in for questioning”, NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio said on CNN.
Additionally, armed with a search warrant, Federal Bureau of Investigation agents and police converged on an apartment above a fried chicken restaurant near the train station before 6 am on Monday.
Twenty-nine people were injured when a bomb exploded in New York’s upmarket Chelsea neighborhood on Saturday night, damaging buildings, shattering glass and sending shrapnel flying across the street. On Sunday night, New Jersey Transit officials closed the Northeast Corridor and North Jersey Coastline rail service overnight, but said both resumed service at around 5:30 a.m. ET.
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. Also Saturday, a pipe bomb exploded about an hour from the Elizabeth train station in Seaside Park, New Jersey, forcing the cancelation of a military charity 5K run. “This search warrant obviously has led to the police from the previous investigation in Chelsea”, Elizabeth Mayor Christian Bollwage said.
A few blocks away from the blast site and shortly after the explosion occurred, investigators found a pressure cooker on 27th street with dark-colored wiring sticking out, connected by silver duct tape to what appeared to be a cell phone, officials said. But he said there was no specific and credible terror threat against New York City.
Ahmad Khan Rahami, 28, has lived at that address.
Authorities have not said publicly that they have determined any link between the incidents, or a possible motive, and have not made public any details of suspects being sought. Bollwage said to expect more detonations. Both New Jersey Transit and Amtrak warned of delays following the incident.
Law enforcement had been examining a device near the Elizabeth train station. “I know there were other devices”.
But before they walked away, they removed a pressure cooker that had been concealed inside it, New York Police Department Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce said.
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On Sunday night, FBI agents in Brooklyn stopped “a vehicle of interest in the investigation” of the Manhattan explosion, according to FBI spokeswoman Kelly Langmesser.
