Explosion rocks New York subway near Times Square, suspect in custody

Police in New York said a pipe bomb was deliberately set off in an explosion in the subway near Times Square on Monday morning.

A law enforcement official speaking on condition of anonymity told the Associated Press that an injured suspect, who had strapped a pipe bomb to himself, was in custody.

Police said Akayed Ullah, 27, of Brooklyn, had burns on his stomach and hands and cuts to his hands.

At least three others were injured from the blast at a subway platform around 42nd Street and Eighth Avenue. None of the injuries were life-threatening.

Police Commissioner James O’Neill said the incident was terror-related and Mayor Bill de Blasio said at a press conference there were “no known additional incidents or activities.”

NEW: Video shows the moment that an apparent pipe bomb goes off in the busy pedestrian walkway between Times Square subway station and Port Authority bus terminal https://t.co/bM1QNc561o pic.twitter.com/KAJz1bQgby

— CBS News (@CBSNews) December 11, 2017

Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the suspect’s device was “effectively low tech.”

A bomb in the subway was, he said, “was in many ways one of our worst nightmares.”

Ullah has lived in the United States for seven years, authorities said.

“There’s practically no way I can think of in which you can ferret these people out over time,” national security expert Paul Kinsinger told KTAR 92.3 FM’s Arizona’s Morning News.

Kinsinger, of Thunderbird School of Global Management at Arizona State University, said, pipe bombs “were very easy to put together … and very easy to get wrong. .. he did most of the damage to himself.”

First responders rushed to the area of the Port Authority Bus Terminal, a site where thousands of commuters pass through daily.

#BREAKING: Explosion reported near Port Authority in New York City, officials confirm https://t.co/npjZmu1hnF pic.twitter.com/CGXqzDL4qj

— NBC New York (@NBCNewYork) December 11, 2017

JUST IN: New York City officials confirm there has been an explosion near 42nd street and 8th Avenue, cause not yet clear

— NBC News (@NBCNews) December 11, 2017

BREAKING: New York Police Department says it is responding to report of explosion near Times Square.

— The Associated Press (@AP) December 11, 2017

News outlets said the device blew up in a subway walkway.

The 7:30 a.m. Eastern Time blast filled the passageway, crowded with throngs of Monday morning commuters, with smoke.

Surrounding streets were shut down and subway service was affected.

In Washington, President Donald Trump said the explosion highlighted the need to change immigration policies, including the type of family-based visa Ullah obtained to come to the U.S. in 2011. Such visas are “incompatible with national security,” the Republican president said in a statement.

“America must fix its lax immigration system, which allows far too many dangerous, inadequately vetted people to access our country,” said Trump, who campaigned on cracking down on immigration.

Law enforcement officials said Ullah was inspired by IS but apparently did not have any direct contact with the group and probably acted alone. Gov. Andrew Cuomo said there was no evidence, so far, of other bombs or a larger plot. He said officials were exploring whether Ullah had been on authorities’ radar, but there was no indication yet that he was.

Investigators described the bomb as a low-tech explosive device attached to Ullah with Velcro and plastic ties. They were looking into how it was made. Cuomo said there was reason to believe the attacker looked at bomb-making instructions online.

Authorities were searching Ullah’s Brooklyn home and a rented space in a building nearby, interviewing witnesses and relatives, reviewing his subway fare card and looking for surveillance footage that might show his movements in the moments before the 7:20 a.m. attack.

Security cameras did capture the attacker walking casually through a crowded passageway under 42nd Street between Seventh and Eighth avenues when the bomb went off amid a plume of white smoke, which cleared to show the man sprawled on the ground and commuters scattering.

“All we could hear was the chaos,” said Elrana Peralta, a Greyhound customer-service worker who was working at the Port Authority bus terminal near the blast, though she did not hear it. Instead, she heard people yelling, “Get out! Get out! Get out!”

Ullah came to the U.S. on an F-4 visa, available for those with family in the U.S. who are citizens, the Department of Homeland Security said. Trump’s administration has called for a “merit-based” immigration system that would limit family-based green cards to spouses and minor children, and a White House spokeswoman said Monday that the proposed policy would have kept Ullah out of the U.S.

He had been licensed to drive a livery cab between 2012 and 2015, but the license was allowed to lapse, according to law enforcement officials and New York City’s Taxi and Limousine Commission.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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