New York police seek 28-year-old man in connection with bombing

NEW YORK

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and other security officials mark evidence near the site of an explosion which took place on Saturday night in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan, New York, U.S. September 18, 2016. REUTERS photo

New York authorities said Sept. 19 that they are seeking a 28-year-old man in connection with a bombing in the city over the weekend that injured 29 people.

Police and the FBI released a photo of Ahmad Khan Rahami, a naturalized U.S. citizen of Afghan origin, saying he was “wanted” for questioning in the explosion on the night of Sept. 17 in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York.  

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said on CNN that Rahami, of New Jersey, “could be armed and dangerous.” 

“We know a lot more than we did just 24 hours ago. It’s certainly leaning more in the direction that this was a specific act of terror,” he said on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” according to AFP. 

Twenty-nine people were hurt when the bomb exploded in the upmarket Chelsea neighborhood, damaging buildings, shattering glass and sending shrapnel flying.

A second bomb was uncovered by police four blocks away and defused safely, before being sent to the FBI in Virginia for forensic examination.

Both bombs were pressure cookers filled with shrapnel and made with flip phones, Christmas lights and explosive compound, The New York Times reported late Sept. 18, citing law enforcement officials.

Earlier on Sept. 19, five potential bombs were discovered overnight near a New Jersey station, one of which blew up as a bomb squad robot tried to disable it, after a weekend of attacks and security alerts in the United States. 

The devices were found late on Sept. 18, a day after the bomb exploded in New York City’s Chelsea district, and a pipe bomb went off along the route of a New Jersey charity run without hurting anyone. Also on Sept. 17, a man armed with a knife wounded nine people at a Minnesota shopping mall. 

Investigators were probing possible links between the attacks, which came as world leaders begin converging on New York for the annual meeting of the United Nations General Assembly on Sept. 20. 

In the latest incident, five potential explosive devices were found in a backpack left in a trash can near a train station and a bar in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Mayor Christian Bollwage told reporters, according to Reuters.
  
After cordoning off the area, a bomb squad used a robot to cut a wire to try to disable the device, but inadvertently set off an explosion, he said. 

No one was hurt, but 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.”