New York City bombing act of terror: Mayor

Rasa - New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has said that Saturday’s bomb explosion in the city’s Chelsea district, which injured 29 people, was an act of terror.

News ID: 423732

Date: 20 September 2016 - 22:33

RNA - "We have every reason to believe this was an act of terror," de Blasio said at a news conference on Monday.

In a similar incident on Sunday night, a device exploded near a train station in New Jersey as an FBI bomb squad was attempting to disarm it with a robot.

In addition, another bomb placed in a garbage can in Seaside Park, New Jersey exploded on Saturday morning.

Police found and arrested the man suspected in the three bombings. Ahmad Khan Rahami, 28, was found outside a bar in Linden, New Jersey on Monday.

Rahami was shot by police and taken to a hospital in Newark, New Jersey, where he was undergoing surgery. His condition is still unknown.

He is a naturalized US citizen who was born in Afghanistan, according to the FBI. Officials believe he has been cooperating with a terrorist group that orchestrated the two bombings.

The officials said that the man’s family was known in Elizabeth, New Jersey, for frequent skirmishes with neighbors over its fried chicken restaurant.

"The suspect was not on the radar of local law enforcement, but the fried chicken place that ... the family owned, we had some code enforcement problems and noise complaints," Elizabeth Mayor Chris Bollwage told reporters Monday.

Mohammad Rahami, the suspect’s father, said he had been unaware of his son planning any bombings.

"I'm not sure what's happening, exactly," he said. "It's very hard right now to talk."

Police Commissioner James O’Neill warned New Yorkers Monday to remain vigilant, but said that “there is no other individual we are looking for at this point in time.”

Also, President Barack Obama, in a televised statement Monday, called on US citizens to remain vigilant and offered the federal government's full assistance in the ongoing, multiagency investigation.

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