Police and firefighters work in front of Port Authority
Bus Terminal as police respond to a report of an explosion
near Times Square on Monday, Dec. 11, 2017, in New York.
(AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)
NEW YORK – A would-be terrorist set off a pipe bomb strapped to his chest in a pedestrian tunnel between two of New York City’s busiest transportation hubs Monday.
Akayed Ullah, 27, who came to the U.S. from Bangladesh, wounded himself and three bystanders in what Mayor Bill de Blasio calls an attempted terrorist attack.
“Thank God the perpetrator dId not achieve his goals,” the mayor said.
This undated photo provided by the New York City
Taxi and Limousine Commission shows Akayed Ullah,
the suspect in the explosion near New York’s
Times Square, Dec. 11, 2017.
Police released pictures of the alleged bomber, lying on the ground in a fetal position. Some of his clothes were blown off and his stomach was blackened.
Doctors say the injured bystanders suffered ringing in the ears and headaches.
Federal and New York City investigators questioned Ullah from his hospital bed and searched his Brooklyn apartment.
Ullah allegedly exploded the bomb in a tunnel connecting the Port Authority Bus Terminal with the Times Square subway stop. The tunnel and stops were packed with tourists and commuters hustling to their jobs in Manhattan.
Television pictures show the tunnel filling with smoke while people streamed out of the walkway to safety, not knowing what kind of calamity would greet them outside.
Port Authority was shut down for several hours as well as major intersections right in the heart of New York.
“The fear is always present with us, those of us that live in New York,” Laura Gonzalez, a New York resident who was in Port Authority Monday told VOA. But Gonzalez said that in New York, people learn “to go to work, to go shopping, to live the life we need to live.”
“Crazy people are everywhere, every time, and New York is a big place, and a public place so it is normal I think,” Ruben Schwartz, a tourist from Germany, told VOA.