Robot detonates explosive in latest N Jersey bomb finding

“There was a suspicious package with multiple improvised explosive devices at the Elizabeth Train Station in NJ,” FBI’s Newark office tweeted after the suspicious backpack was found last night near the Elizabeth train station. “In the course of rendering one of the devices safe, it detonated. There are no injuries and law enforcement personnel are at the scene processing evidence,” it added. Federal and local authorities were also investigating another suspicious item in the vicinity, CNN reported. The backpack was noticed in a trash can by two men, who reported it to the police after they saw “wires and a pipe” in it, Chris Bollwage, mayor of Elizabeth, New Jersey, said. 

“This was an explosive device containing as many as five explosives. Based on the loudness, I think people could have been severely hurt or injured if they had been in the vicinity.” Bollwage said he was “extremely concerned for the residents of the community” if “someone could just go and drop a backpack into a garbage can that has multiple explosives in it.” The explosion was the second in New Jersey since Sunday. Another pipe bomb went off on Sunday in a trash can in New Jersey. 

As many as 29 people were injured after a blast in Chelsea district of Manhattan, New York, on Sunday, while a second bomb that was discovered nearly four blocks away was defused successfully by the bomb disposal squad. The New York explosion was determined to have been an “intentional act,” authorities said, adding, five people were being questioned by the FBI but none has been charged and the investigation was ongoing. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said it was clearly “an act of terrorism,” although it hadn’t been linked to an international terrorist group.