A bomb exploded at New York City’s bustling Port Authority Bus Terminal at about 8 am ET on Monday during the early morning rush hour, according to ABC TV’s Good Morning America show.
At least one injury has been reported.
The New York Times reported an unnamed senior city official as saying that the suspect had been wearing an explosive device attached to his body “and that the police had stripped him naked to remove it.”
“The suspect was alone and the device was reported to have gone off prematurely in the passageway between the two subway stations. The explosion was recorded on surveillance video,” according to the city official cited by the Times.
The man, identified by police as 27-year-old Akayed Ullah, a Bangladeshi immigrant, reportedly made statements supporting ISIS after being taken into custody. He is said to be in custody and is reportedly in serious condition at Bellevue Hospital.
No terrorist group, as yet, has taken credit for the attack.
New York City’s Fire Department now says that four people were injured in the small blast. All have non-life threatening injuries.
Police are searching for possible secondary devices in the vicinity of the terminal. Police are telling local media that the situation “has been contained.”
ABC’s Good Morning America cites police as saying that the bomb went off in a below-ground passageway at the terminal.
The Port Authority is a key transportation hub where buses and trains operate from the West Side of Midtown Manhattan.
The terminal a few blocks from Times Square is used by hundreds of thousands of passengers a day and connects with the city’s subway system. Trains to the terminal have been diverted.
Security officials in New York are worried that there might be more terror-related attacks in the city during the current Christmas holidays.
The attack, which occurred on December 11, or 12/11, in an apparent reference to the attack on New York’s World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, is the second serious terror attack in the city this year.
Eight people were killed on October 31 when a suspected terrorist driving a rental truck slammed into a crowd of pedestrians and cyclists on a jogging and bike path in lower Manhattan on Halloween Day, October 31. It was the first fatal attack in the city since the 9/11 attacks 16 years ago.
A handful of attempted attacks in New York since 2001 have been intercepted by authorities or failed, causing few injuries.
Police say the bomb in Monday’s terminal attack may have gone off prematurely as it detonated in a uncrowded lower level rather than on the transport hub’s main concourse.
Security analysts say the reported explosive vest appears to have been “crudely constructed” — pointing to a suspect with amateurish bomb-making skills.