Authorities are looking for a 28-year-old naturalized Afghanistan citizen in connection with the bombing in Manhattan's Chelsea Saturday that injured 29 people, and multiple senior law enforcement officials tell NBC News they also suspect the man was involved in pipe bombs going off in Seaside Park and Elizabeth, New Jersey.
Ahmad Rahami, whose last known address is Elizabeth, is about 5 feet 6 inches tall and weighs about 200 pounds. Rahami has brown hair and eyes and facial hair; authorities say he should be considered armed and dangerous. An emergency alert was sent to all smartphones in the area urging anyone who sees him to call 911.
"We do not yet know if this was a lone wolf or if it was something that involved other individuals," Mayor Bill de Blasio said in an MSNBC interview.
Five people believed to be relatives or associates of Rahami were taken into custody Saturday during a traffic stop on the Verrazano Bridge. No one has been charged; the traffic stop came as authorities pursued a "promising lead" into surveillance video obtained from two sites in Manhattan where explosive devices were found -- one on 23rd Street and one on 27th Street.
It wasn't immediately clear if authorities believed Rahami is the man seen on surveillance video at two locations where the explosive devices were recovered.
One video shows a man putting an object in a dumpster near 23rd Street and Sixth Avenue, followed by an explosion some time later. Another video from 27th Street shows a man leave a piece of luggage on the sidewalk; that piece of luggage contained a bag with a pressure cooker inside. The cooker had a cellphone attached and wires protruding. It was taken to a Bronx firing range.
No one was hurt in the two New Jersey cases. A robot trying to disarm one of five pipe bombs found in a trash can near an NJ Transit station in Elizabeth inadvertently detonated the device, causing an explosion. On Saturday, a pipe bomb went off in a trash can along a Marine race route. Officials said they thought the bomb had been timed to detonate as participants were running by, but the race started late.
Old-fashioned flip phones were found on the devices in Manhattan and in Seaside Park, law enforcement officials close to the investigation told NBC 4 New York. The investigation into the devices found in Elizabeth Monday was ongoing.
The series of incidents put the entire tri-state area on edge. Early Monday morning Rutgers University urged people to avoid a New Brunswick parking garage while a suspicious package was investigated. Calls to police about suspicious packages skyrocketed amid heightened tensions.
The Chelsea explosion left many rattled in a city that had marked the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks only a week earlier and that was schedule to hold a United Nations meeting Monday to address the refugee crisis in Syria.
Witnesses described a deafening blast that shattered storefront windows and injured bystanders with shrapnel in the mostly residential neighborhood on the city's west side.
Former New York Police Commissioner Bill Bratton, who stepped down just last week, said Monday morning this was probably the first successful terrorist attack in the city since 9/11.
Mayor de Blasio said there is “no specific and credible threat against New York City at this point in time from any terror organization,” but urged vigilance.
Police have ruled out a connection to the blast in Central Park in July that blew off a teen's foot. Right now police are trying to figure out the motive behind the attack.
“We do not know the motivation. We do not know the nature of it. That's what we have to do more work on,” de Blasio said Sunday.
Cuomo had said Sunday that there was no evidence to suggest that the bombing was related to international terrorism, but he appeared to walk that back Monday.
"Today's information suggests it may be foreign related, but we'll see where it goes," he said.
On Sunday, the governor deployed nearly 1,000 additional State Police and National Guard troops across the city to guard transit stations and area airports as a precaution.
The White House said President Obama was briefed throughout the night and early Monday on the investigation into bombs found in New York City and New Jersey. Spokesman Josh Earnest said Obama will comment publicly later Monday.
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