New York Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that the explosion at Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York is an attempted terrorist attack, while Police Commissioner James O’Neill stated the attack was a “terror-related incident” where Akayed Ullah, a 27-year-old Bangladeshi immigrant learned how to make the low-level explosive device through online instructions.
Mayor de Blasio also said there were “no known additional incidents or activities” but said there would be an increased police presence in the city.
"Thank God the perpetrator did not achieve his ultimate goals. Thank God our first responders were there so quickly to address the situation," de Blasio added, describing the situation as "incredibly unsettling" for New Yorkers.
The attack happened in the underground corridor between Times Square and the Port Authority Bus Terminal Monday morning. The explosion happened around 7:30 a.m. in a passageway under 42nd Street between 7th and 8th avenues, prompting a massive emergency response by the New York Police Department and Fire Department New York both above and below ground.
The explosion was few minutes away from Broadway street, New York's busiest streets where hundreds of tourists visit it daily.
Authorities described it as a terror-related incident, which happened six weeks after eight people were killed and almost a dozen injured when man in a truck drove down a busy bicycle path near the World Trade Center in New York City.
WABC Channel stated that the suspect has been identified as 27-year-old Akayed Ullah, who is from Bangladesh and has been in the country for six years. Authorities say he entered the US on an F4 visa, a family-based visa, and lived at an address in Brooklyn.
The pipe bomb was assembled in the suspect's apartment, officials said, in an attack he is believed to have been planning for a year.
Ullah was severely injured in the apparent suicide bombing attempt, and he was taken into custody at the scene and transported to hospital and was stripped of his clothes to remove it.
New York fire department announced four other people were injured in the explosion, but none of the injuries were life-threatening, explaining that Ullah sustained burns to his hands and torso while the three other people suffered “ringing ears and headaches”.
New York City Police Commissioner Bill Bratton said that preliminary reports indicated that the attack was ISIS-inspired.
"Preliminary information indicates the attack was committed in the name of ISIS," said Bratton, adding that the suspect is "possibly" a Bangladeshi man who has been in the US for about seven years.
Investigations are still ongoing to detect whether the attacker worked on his own or had other accomplices.
New York Police Department tweeted on its official account saying: "The NYPD is responding to reports of an explosion of unknown origin at 42nd Street and 8th Ave, Manhattan. The A, C and E line are being evacuated at this time. Info is preliminary, more when available."
White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders that President Trump has been briefed on the explosion and spoke on the phone with New York's Mayor and Governor.
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said Monday he would hold the man suspected of bombing a New York City subway corridor near Times Square as an enemy combatant.
“I want to hold this person as a suspected enemy combatant for a few days, let the intelligence community talk to him, gather as much intel as we can,” Graham said. “Then we’ll make a decision where to charge him and how to charge him.”
“The first thing I want to do is treat this as an act of terror not a common crime, and the Obama administration criminalized the war, the Trump administration followed that same model,” he continued.
