NEW JERSEY: Police Robot Explodes Bomb Found Near Elizabeth Train Station, Five Suspects In Custody

NBC News reports:

One of five devices found in a bag near an Elizabeth, New Jersey, train station exploded early Monday as a bomb squad robot was trying to disarm it, and just hours later heavily armed FBI agents were seen in the city as authorities grew more concerned that there may be an active terror cell in the tri-state area.

The FBI confirmed that the 8:45 p.m. Verrazano traffic stop was part of an investigation into Saturday’s bombing in Manhattan that injured 29 people. The agency said that the five individuals who were taken into custody are from Elizabeth. None of them has been charged with a crime and the investigation is ongoing.

The news of the suspicious bag at the Elizabeth station was first reported late Sunday, around the same time that the FBI said it had taken five people into custody for questioning after a traffic stop on the Verrazano Bridge.

Mayor Bollwage said that five separate pipe bomb devices were found inside the bag and that those devices were pulled from the bag and separated so that they could be inspected. As the robot was “cutting wires” on the first device, it went off, startling everyone at the scene. No one was injured. Bollwage said it “could have hurt a lot of people.”

Bomb techs from the FBI, Union County, & the New Jersey State Police have arrived on the scene and are now rendering the area safe

— FBI Newark (@FBINewark) September 19, 2016