A New Jersey mayor says one of five devices found in a backpack near a train station has exploded while a bomb squad robot was attempting to disarm it.
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An explosive device left near a train station in Elizabeth, blew up earlier on Monday when a bomb squad robot cut a wire on the mechanism, one of as many as five potential bombs found at the site, the city’s mayor said.
He said the men at first thought there was something valuable in the backpack until they saw all the wires inside. The New York Times reports that more than 2,000 Amtrak and NJ Transit passengers were affected by the investigation.
The New York Police Department released a photo of Ahmad Khan Rahami, who was wanted for questioning in the Saturday night explosions in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood, de Blasio said on CNN. The FBI and the New Jersey State Police quickly stepped in, dispatching two robots – one of which accidentally detonated the bomb at around 12:30 a.m. this morning.
The discovery came after three attacks at the weekend – bombs in NY and New Jersey, and stabbings in Minnesota.
In Elizabeth, New Jersey, police detonated a device on Monday, September 19 following concerns it was a live bomb. Authorities were trying to determine if they were connected.
“Service was suspended Sunday evening due to police activity near the Elizabeth, NJ station. There are no injuries & law enforcement personnel are at the scene processing evidence”, according to a tweet from FBI Newark account.
“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.
Bollwage said that he wasn’t willing to say that Elizabeth had become a target and that it was possible that someone anxious about the authorities was trying to get rid of the package.
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The discovery of the suspicious package comes a day after an explosion in Manhattan injured 29 people, and an unexploded pressure-cooker device was found four blocks away.
