On Monday morning at around 7:30 a.m., just as rush hour was hitting its peak in one of the busiest cities in the country, a man wearing a self-made device set off an explosion at the Port Authority Bus Terminal located near Times Square.
The man who was responsible is now in custody after setting off the low-tech pipe bomb in a passageway underneath 42nd Street in Manhattan connecting the subway stations at Times Square and Port Authority. Police identified him as Akayed Ullah, a resident of Brooklyn who came from Bangladesh, who is now being held at Bellevue Hospital in police custody after suffering wounds post-detonation.
The Fire Department of New York confirmed that there were four injuries, one including the suspect himself, but none were life-threatening.
According to a senior NY law enforcement official, Ullah had told the police that he had made the device at his workplace, though his specific motives are still unclear.
NEW: Surveillance video captures moment of explosion in "attempted terrorist attack" at Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York City Monday morning during rush hour. https://t.co/xZbvTtTfIj pic.twitter.com/G942aXDdR2
— World News Tonight (@ABCWorldNews) December 11, 2017
“At this point in time, all we know of is one individual who, thank God, was unsuccessful in his aims,” Mayor of New York City Bill de Blasio said, ensuring that there were no other threats in the area. “There are also no credible and specific threats against New York City at this time. But we will give you more information, of course, as the investigation unfold. The first responders responded brilliantly. Now the mission of the NYPD is to secure all major transit hubs and major sites in this city. So you’ll see expanded NYPD presence today all over the city.”
The commuters at the subway stations and the Port Authority Bus Terminal were evacuated amid one of the most occupied hours of the day for the city, following the mass flee after hearing the loud noise from the explosion.
Customer service worker for Greyhound Elrana Peralta told CBS News, “All we could hear was the chaos. We could hear people yelling, ‘Get out! Get out! Get out!'”
“Our lives revolve around the subway. 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,” Mayor de Blasio said in a news conference, referring to the bombing as a terrorist attack. “The terrorists want to undermine that. They yearn to attack New York City.”
