It was picked out of a bin by two men on Sunday evening, who thought the bag could contain something of value.
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Two officers were shot, although their injuries are not serious, CBS New York reports.
The men had reported seeing wires and a pipe coming out of the package, Mr Bollwage said.
“We do not yet know if this was a lone wolf, or if it was something involving additional individuals”, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said Monday morning.
A statement on the FBI website reads: “The FBI is asking for assistance in locating Ahmad Khan Rahami”.
Authorities said they are searching for Ahmad Khan Rahami, 28, in connection to the explosion in Chelsea on Saturday night. The bomb detonated in a garbage can but no one was injured.
Ahmad Khan Rahami, a naturalized US citizen from Afghanistan with an address in Elizabeth, New Jersey, should be considered armed and unsafe, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said in one of a series of TV appearances just minutes after the photo was released. He is about 5 feet 6 inches tall and weighs approximately 200 pounds. He has brown hair, brown eyes and brown facial hair. He is said to be armed and unsafe.
On Monday morning, officials said he was involved with both incidents.
On Sunday, five more explosive devices were discovered in a trash can at an Elizabeth train station. “So you want to be careful what you say early on because you want to protect the information, but that would be my guess”, he said. One of the devices exploded as a bomb squad attempted to disarm it with a robot. This followed the discovery of a pipe-bomb at a Semper Fi 5K.
Other devices have been found or have exploded in New Jersey over the past few days.
The explosion happened in Chelsea, Manhattan, on Saturday. The first device exploded in a dumpster, and a second unexploded device was found on West 27th St. a short time after.
Mr Bollwage said that he was not willing to say that Elizabeth was a target, and that it was possible that someone anxious about the authorities was trying to get rid of the package.
Both bombs in New York were filled with shrapnel and made with pressure cookers, flip phones, Christmas lights and explosive compound, the New York Times reported late Sunday, citing law enforcement officials. NY restores subway service in all Chelsea stations.
Are the two pressure cookers in NY connected?
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Linden is a neighboring community immediately southwest of Elizabeth, New Jersey – Rahami’s hometown, where Federal Bureau of Investigation officers overnight found and defused a nest of bombs planted at the train station.
