Bomb explodes in New Jersey as NYPD robot tries to disarm it
A pipe bomb exploded in New Jersey while a robot was attempting to deactivate it. The incident followed Saturday’s Manhattan bomb explosion that injured 29 people. The pressure-cooker bomb was found to have contained tannerite, which is often used to explode targets at gun ranges. The bomb’s assemblers were probably inspired by ISIS or Al Qaeda, according to analysts.
T he FBI was hunting a suspected serial bomber behind a blast which injured 29 people in New York as another explosive device today went off near a train station.

Five people were being quizzed after agents stopped “a vehicle of interest in the investigation” of the Manhattan explosion last night.

An official said five people in the car were being questioned at an FBI building in lower Manhattan but no-one had been charged.

The homemade pressure cooker bomb which exploded in the Chelsea district of Manhatten on Saturday night and another one which did not go off were packed with “fragmentation materials” designed to kill as many people as possible, officials said.

The disclosure suggested the suspect or suspects were inspired by the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013 in which Islamic terrorists used similar pressure cooker bombs.

New York Bomb Explosions 1 / 12 New York Bomb Explosions Blast: Crime scene investigators work at the scene of Saturday's explosion Craig Ruttle/AP New York: Firefighters at the scene Rashid Umar Abbasi/Reuters Reaction: Firefighters arrive in West 23rd Street Andres Kudacki/AP Help: A police officer escorts an injured man away from the scene Nico Maounis/AP Emergency: Police and firefighters work near the scene of an apparent explosion in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood Andres Kudacki/AP Explosion: Police arrive on the scene of an explosion in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood, in New York Andres Kudacki/AP New York Mayor Bill de Blasio (right) and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo (centre) stand in front of a mangled dumpster while touring the site of an explosion that occurred on Saturday night Justin Lane-Pool/Getty Images FBI Assistant Director in Charge of New York Bill Sweeney, New York City Police Commissioner James O'Neill, New York City Mayor Bll de Blasio and New York City Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro take questions during a press conference regarding Saturday night's explosion in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan Drew Angerer/Getty Images People stand behind police lines as firefighters, emergency workers and police gather at the scene of an explosion in Manhattan Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Senior investigators are becoming increasingly convinced that there is a link between the New York incident and the failed bombing of a race for US marines and sailors in New Jersey earlier on Saturday.

ABC News said that they were “separate but coordinated” attacks whilst NBC News said that all the bombs used old style flip phone devices to detonate.

New York was today going back to work on “full alert” with 1,000 extra police and National Guard on the streets and at train stations and airports to keep the city safe.

Today is the start of the United Nations General Assembly when dozens of world leaders are in New York, further adding to the tension.

Loading....

Tensions were heightened further when a suspicious device found in a rubbish bin near a train station in New Jersey exploded early today.

The apparent pipe bomb exploded as a bomb squad was attempting to disarm it with a robot, officials said.

The FBI was working to disarm one of five devices found in the same bag, which was discovered in a rubbish bin by two men at around 8.30pm last night, near the Elizabeth train station on the North East Corridor rail line, according to the city’s mayor Christian Bollwage. The men had reported seeing wires and a pipe coming out of the package, Mr Bollwage said.

The bomb that exploded in Manhattan reportedly contained material similar to a commercially available compound called Tannerite.

Tannerite is made by mixing ammonium nitrate and aluminum powder and is frequently used for exploding targets at gun ranges. They are easy to buy on their own as neither is an explosive independently.

This suggests that the bomb makers may have received training and inspiration and opens up the possibility they were inspired by Islamic State or Al Qaeda.

New York state governor Andrew Cuomo had ruled this out but this may be premature, the New York Times said.

The method for assembling pressure cookers has been described in detail by the al-Qaeda magazine Inspire, for example.

In a further twist, the New York Post reported that a hand-written letter, a portion of which is in Arabic, was found inside a plastic bag that held the second Manhattan device.

The earlier bombing in New Jersey happened around 9.30am on Saturday 80 miles south of Manhattan in Seaside Park.

A pipe bomb in a plastic bin exploded on the route of a 5K Marine Corps charity run but nobody was hurt as it started late.

The device was composed of three pipe bombs, only one of which went off, leaving plenty of physical evidence for investigators to examine, federal officials said.

Eleven hours later on West 23rd Street the bomb went off in New York, sparking panic and chaos on the streets on a warm late summer night in the busy Chelsea neighbourhood.

The blast left victims, including a pregnant woman and a boy of eight, covered in blood with metal shards embedded in their bodies.

Witnesses said the explosion was like a ‘wall of flames’ that was so powerful it threw people into the air and lifted cars onto their side.

Two hours later a pressure cooker connected to a mobile phone and wiring was discovered four blocks away on West 27th St and removed by the New York Police Department bomb squad.

The remains of the devices from both New York and New Jersey were being examined by the FBI in its specialist laboratory in Quantico, Virginia amid a huge hunt for suspects.

The New York Daily News said that investigators have CCTV footage of a man dropping off something at the bomb site on West 23rd St.

They also have video of a man leaving some luggage at the second site on West 27th St. After he left two other people removed the bag and took the luggage with them but left the device behind.

Late last night FBI agents were seen tearing apart a car of an Uber driver in Manhattan amid reports of a suspicious passenger who had been in his car.

The US suffered a third terror attack on Saturday around the same time as the New York explosion, putting America further on edge.

A suspected terrorist in St Paul, Minnesota, dressed as a security guard and talking about Allah slashed nine people in a shopping mall before being shot dead by police.