Pipe Bomb Explodes Near New York Bus Terminal

by Rehan Qamar

An attempted terrorist attack struck the Port Authority Bus Terminal at 42nd Street and 8th Avenue near Times Square on Monday morning. Three were injured causing chaos in one of the busiest commuter cubs in the nation, officials said.

Police have identified the suspect behind the New York bus terminal explosion as Akayed Ullah, 27, a Bangladeshi immigrant living in Brooklyn.

Ullah wore an “improvised low-tech explosive device attached to his body,” which he intentionally detonated, New York Police  Department Commissioner James O’Neill said.

Ullah had attached a pipe bomb to himself with a “combination of Velcro and zip ties,”  O’Neill said. The fastening may have indicated Ullah intended to carry out a suicide bombing.

According to officials, the device went off prematurely with the explosion being recorded on surveillance video.

Ullah, now at Bellevue Hospital, is being treated for lacerations and burns to his hands and abdomen, New York City Fire Department Commissioner Daniel Nigro said.

The incident comes a few weeks after a deadly terror attack in Lower Manhattan, where a man killed eight and injured others as he drove a pickup truck down a bicycle path near the World Trade Center on Halloween. This was the deadliest terror attack in New York City since the September 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center.

The blast occurred around 7:20 a.m. in an underground walkway connecting two subway lines.

After the explosion was reported, chaos erupted as commuters underground near 40th Street and 8th Avenue began to flee after the loud, muffled sound was heard in the Port Authority subway station.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority reported that 1, 2, 3, A, C, E, N, Q, R, W and 7 trains were skipping 42nd Street, affecting the commute of thousands to the busy commuter hub.

In a news conference, Mayor Bill de Blasio called the blast an attempted terrorist attack and said no other devices had been found.

“Our lives revolve around the subway,” he said. “The choice of New York is always for a reason, because we are beacons of the world. And we show that a society of many background and many faiths can work.”

“The terrorists want to undermine that,” he added. “They yearn to attack New York City.”

While police sources say the suspect was heard doing this for the name of ISIS, no confirmed connection has been made.