Sources tell CBS News that Rahami is also sought in connection with the bombing in Seaside Park, New Jersey, as well as the five explosive devices found in a backpack near a train station in Elizabeth, New Jersey, the suspect’s hometown.
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Witnesses described hearing a deafening blast, and surveillance video footage captured images of nearby windows being blown out by the explosion as people sprinted away from the scene.
“We just know there was a bombing”, Mayor Bill de Blasio said at briefing at New York Police Department’s headquarters.
Authorities say FBI agents pulled over a auto on a highway in Brooklyn and are questioning the vehicle’s occupants in connection with the investigation of the bombing in Manhattan.
A law enforcement official told The Associated Press that the FBI’s joint terrorism task force was responding and that investigators did not believe the incident was due to a gas leak.
Officials said initially that they didn’t believe the bombs found Saturday night in New York City and Saturday morning in New Jersey were connected to worldwide terrorism.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Sunday that investigators so far have not found any connection to global terrorist groups, and there is no further immediate threat to the city.
A powerful explosion rocked Manhattan’s popular Chelsea neighborhood late on Saturday after a pressure-cooker bomb packed with shrapnel detonated.
A second device – said to be a pressure cooker attached to wiring and a mobile phone – was also found in the area just four blocks from the site of the explosion.
He said that he is in contact with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie regarding an explosion that took place yesterday in Seaside Park, New Jersey, during a 5K race, but said that the explosive devices used were “different”. Only one exploded, and no one was injured.
In another development late Sunday, a suspicious device found in a trash can near a New Jersey train station was being examined, and service on the busy Northeast Corridor line has been suspended.
A number of New York City subway routes were affected by the earlier explosion.
Sen. Marty Golden (R-Brooklyn) posted a statement on social media shortly after 10 p.m. announcing the apprehension of people with “a possible connection” to the Saturday night bombing along West 23rd Street that injured 29. There were no immediate reports of any injuries or damage.
At a press conference Saturday night, the mayor cautioned that the investigation was still in the early stages and there was little that authorities could definitively say about the explosion. All the injured had been released from the hospital by Sunday afternoon.
Federal Bureau of Investigation agents are questioning five suspects over the explosion that injured 29 people in a crowded Manhattan neighbourhood.
Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer said the Chelsea explosion was not in a dumpster but next to one in the street.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said as investigators gathered information, they learned there were “certain commonalities among the bombs”, leading authorities to believe “that there was a common group behind the bombs”. He said at first he thought it was thunder and lightning.
Mr Bollwage said: “I can imagine that if all five of them went off at the same time, that the loss of life could have been enormous if there was an event going on”.
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The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk about the ongoing investigation.
