The FBI launched a raid at a building in Elizabeth, New Jersey Monday morning, hours after investigators uncovered five suspicious devices one of which exploded near a train station in that city.
Undercover agents and members of the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force were taking part in the raid in an apartment above a restaurant, roughly one mile from the train station.
Bomb dogs went from car to car and trash can to trash can along a residential street. It was unclear whether they found any possible suspects.
The suspicious devices turned up in a backpack near the train station Sunday night.
One exploded when a bomb squad robot tried to disarm it. The discovery came a day after an explosion in Manhattan injured 29 people and an unexploded pressure-cooker device was found four blocks away, although investigators would not say whether the incidents were believed to be linked.
Elizabeth Mayor Christian Bollwage said two men called police and reported seeing wires and a pipe coming out of the package after finding it in a trash can around 8:30 p.m.
Media at the scene reported hearing a loud explosion and smelling gunpowder at around 12:40 a.m. Monday after Bollwage said earlier that the Union County bomb squad’s robotic device indicated that the package could’ve been a live bomb. There was no report of injuries following the explosion.
Bollwage said the FBI and state police would decide how to remove the devices.
New Jersey Transit service was suspended early Monday between Newark Liberty Airport and Elizabeth, and New Jersey-bound Amtrak trains were being held at New York Penn Station, officials said.
Riders reported being stuck on Amtrak and NJ Transit trains for hours Sunday night, while some trains moved in reverse to let passengers off at other stations.
Also on Saturday, a pipe bomb exploded about an hour from the Elizabeth train station in Seaside Park, New Jersey, forcing the cancellation of a military charity 5K run. Officials said it didn’t appear that those two incidents were connected, though they weren’t ruling anything out.
FBI agents raiding an Elizabeth, New Jersey location after last night’s backpack pipe bomb explosion a mile away. pic.twitter.com/o4lxyZ91hT
— Meghan K. Welsh (@meghankwelsh) September 19, 2016
