New York bomb suspect detained after shootout

The suspect believed to be responsible for bombings in New York and New Jersey on Saturday was taken into custody on Monday morning after a gunfight with police.

Ahmad Khan Rahami (28) was found in Linden, New Jersey, hours after police released a photograph identifying him as the man caught on surveillance video planting a bomb on Saturday night that injured 29 people in the busy Chelsea neighbourhood of Manhattan.

All of the wounded were treated and released from hospital.

ExpandAutoplay

Image 1 of 4

Onlookers watch while police officers stand guard near the site where Ahmad Khan Rahami, sought in connection with a bombing in New York, was taken into custody in Linden, New Jersey, US. Photograph: Eduardo Munoz/Reuters

Millions of mobile phones across Manhattan buzzed early on Monday morning with police emergency alerts warning people that they were seeking the New Jersey man in connection with the weekend bombings and describing him as “armed and dangerous”.

Rahami exchanged gunfire with police at about 10.45am (3.45pm Irish time) after he was disturbed by a police officer sleeping in the doorway of a bar in Linden, about a 40-minute drive from New York City.

The officer was shot by Rahami after waking him, but was struck in his bulletproof vest.

Another officer received a minor injury during the subsequent shootout, before Rahami was himself shot multiple times by police and taken into custody.

Photographs and video footage showed Rahami lying on the ground with his hands cuffed behind his back and his shirt rolled up.

He had blood splatters on his face and what appeared to be an injury to his shoulder. He later underwent surgery for his injuries.

Rahami was wanted in connection with the bombings near the starting line of a US marine corps charity run in Seaside Park, New Jersey – a beach town about 145km south of New York City – on Saturday and the bombing at West 27th Street in Chelsea, a popular New York City nightspot, later that evening.

Naturalised citizen

The naturalised US citizen of Afghan descent, a resident of Elizabeth next to Newark in New Jersey, where his family ran a 24-hour fast food restaurant, was identified by law enforcement officials on surveillance video planting both the bomb that exploded in Chelsea and another device that was found intact four blocks away.

Police discovered another five pipe bombs in a backpack near a train station in Elizabeth early on Sunday morning. One of the devices detonated as a police robot tried to disarm it.

As the search for Rahami narrowed, police stopped a car near a bridge in Brooklyn on Sunday morning and brought five people connected with the New Jersey man in for questioning. The five were later released from custody.

The two bombs in Manhattan were similar to the home-made pressure-cooker bombs detonated in the Boston Marathon attack that killed three people and wounded 264 in .

New York governor Andrew Cuomo said there were similarities to the various bombs and refused to rule out the possibility of a connection with a foreign terrorist organisation.

“I would not be surprised if we did have a foreign connection to this act,” Mr Cuomo said.

New York mayor Bill de Blasio described the attacks as “an act of terror”.

There was no immediate evidence as to what motivated the bombings and there was no indication that an extremist cell was operating in the area, William Sweeney, an agent of the FBI, told a news conference in New York.

US media, citing law enforcement sources and associates of the suspect, reported that Rahami travelled to his homeland of Afghanistan several times in recent years and showed signs of radicalisation when he returned to the US.

Meanwhile, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton accused Republican rival Donald Trump of helping Islamic State militants recruit more fighters, as the bomb blasts made national security a top concern on the US presidential campaign trail.

Mr Trump also said Ms Clinton’s “weakness” while Democratic president Barack Obama’s secretary of state had emboldened terrorists worldwide to attack the US.

The explosions came days before world leaders prepared to gather at the United Nations in New York for the annual General Assembly.

Additional reporting: Reuters