At a news conference late Saturday, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio labeled the explosion as an “intentional act” but said there was “no specific and credible threat to New York City from any terror organization”.
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Earlier in the day, another official said that the Federal Bureau of Investigation was aware of the posting and evaluating its authenticity.
Investigators were probing possible links between the attacks, which came as world leaders begin converging on NY for the annual meeting of the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday.
There turned out to be five devices in the bag. They scoured shrapnel, forensic traces and surveillance video for any link to an unexploded pressure-cooker device found a few blocks away.
While officials said the events had not been linked to worldwide terrorism, the security threat put residents, police and security personnel on high alert as three explosions took place over the weekend but did not cause any fatalities.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Sunday a blast that injured 29 people in Manhattan was caused by some kind of bomb, but the attack didn’t appear to be linked to worldwide terrorists.
“We do not know the motivation; we do not know the nature of it”, the mayor said.
NY police, the FBI and the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives converged on the site for their first daylight view of the site of the explosion, cordoning it off and placing dozens of evidence markers on the ground.
‘We’ve been in touch with various officials including in the mayor’s office in NY to learn what they are discovering as they conduct this investigation and I’ll have more to say about it when we actually have the facts, ‘ she said.
In the Midwest, an assailant reported to be Somali-American went on a stabbing spree in a shopping mall in St. Cloud, Minnesota, injuring nine people before being shot dead by an off-duty police officer.
Reuters was not immediately able to verify the authenticity of the claim made by Islamic State through the group’s affiliated Amaq news agency.
Associated Press writer Alicia A. Caldwell contributed to this report from Washington, D.C. Nobody was injured by that explosion.
A pressure cooker with dark-colored wiring had been connected by silver duct tape to a cellphone was safely removed from West 27th Street between Sixth and Seventh avenues by the NYPD Bomb Squad.
Di Blasio said there appeared to be no connection to Saturday’s earlier incident in Seaside Heights, N.J., where a pipe bomb exploded near a Marine charity run.
Cuomo says the injured have been released from the hospital. “That’s what we have to do more work on”, said Mayor Bill de Blasio.
The additional troops were deployed “out of an abundance of caution”, the governor’s office said.
NEW YORK-Counterterrorism agents were combing through surveillance videos as they hunted for a bomb maker who set off an explosion in New York Saturday night that injured 29 people, putting the city on high alert.
Trump made the comments around 9:10 p.m., shortly after the explosion in Manhattan’s crowded Chelsea neighborhood and as emergency officials were responding to the blast.
Two men discovered the backpack and reported it to police after they saw “wires and a pipe” in the package, Bollwage said. Investigators looked into it and didn’t consider it relevant to the case, said the official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation.
The blast is under investigation.
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But separate U.S. media reports, citing officials off the record, say both devices had flip phones and Christmas lights as makeshift detonators.
