Port Authority Bomber Was Inspired by ISIS Christmas Attacks, Officials Say
Mr. Ullah had attached the pipe bomb to himself with a “combination of Velcro
and zip ties,” said James P. O’Neill, the commissioner of the New York Police Department.
A would-be suicide bomber detonated a pipe bomb strapped to his body in the heart of Manhattan’s busiest subway corridor, rending the early Monday commute with a blast
that reverberated up through the city’s sidewalks, caused transit chaos and terrified thousands of travelers who fled headlong through tunnels choked with smoke.
At a news conference on Eighth Avenue just outside the Port Authority, the police displayed a picture of Mr. Ullah
that appeared to have been taken inside the subway walkway after the blast.
He chose the location because of its Christmas-themed posters, recalling strikes in Europe against Christmas markets, he told investigators,
and set off his bomb in retaliation for U. S. airstrikes on ISIS targets in Syria and elsewhere, several law enforcement officials said.
Four people were injured in an explosion in the passageway connecting the Times Square and Port Authority subway stations.
The explosion occurred in the underground passageway connecting the Times Square and Port Authority subway stations in Manhattan.
A suspect, identified by the police as Akayed Ullah, 27, an immigrant from Bangladesh who lived in Brooklyn, was in police custody.
Mr. Ullah acted alone, Mayor Bill de Blasio said, adding that no other devices had been found.
The attack, at 7:20 a.m., occurred in a long pedestrian walkway connecting the Eighth Avenue, Seventh Avenue and Broadway subway lines.