Terrorist attack in New York near Times Square

USA Today

Subway lines were evacuated and dozens of emergency vehicles swarmed the area near Times Square on Monday after a terrorism-related explosion triggered chaos at a busy transit hub during the morning rush.

Four people, including the suspect, were injured in the blast, authorities said. None of the injuries was considered life-threatening.

"This was an attempted terror attack," Mayor Bill de Blasio said. "Thank God the perpetrator did not achieve his ultimate goal."

Police Commissioner James O'Neill said the blast occurred on a below-ground walkway connecting subway lines. Police responding to the scene found an injured man wearing an improvised, low-tech explosive device he had "intentionally detonated," O'Neill said.

Suspect Akayed Ullah, 27, was taken into custody and rushed to a Bellevue Hospital with burns and other injuries, O'Neill said. Three people near him suffered minor injuries, O'Neill said.

"We are New Yorkers; we don't live in fear," O'Neill said.

The blast came at a time when the area was packed with commuters and holiday tourists in a city still on edge from a terror attack six weeks ago that claimed eight lives.

Christina Bethea, 29, a security guard from Yonkers, a New York City northern suburb, said she was getting off a southbound 1 line subway train en route to work when she heard a loud noise.

"I heard boom and saw smoke and we all started running up the steps," Bethea said. "It sounded like a loud gunshot.... When you hear a boom and see smoke, that means get the hell out of there."

Bethea said she called co-workers to make sure they weren't harmed and let friends and relatives know she was OK.

"I'm alive. That's all that matters to me," she said. "I said, damn, I'm gonna move back to North Carolina. New York City is too much for me."

Less than three hours after the blast, officials said all trains and buses were running, although the area around the blast was being bypassed. But in the minutes following the blast, at about 7:20 a.m., public transit in the area came to a near standstill.

"The NYPD is responding to reports of an explosion of unknown origin at 42nd Street and 8th Ave, #Manhattan," Police Department said in a tweet. "The A, C and E line are being evacuated at this time. Info is preliminary, more when available."

Gov. Andrew Cuomo said New Yorkers understand their city is an international target "for many who would like to make a statement" against freedom.

"The reality turned out better than the initial expectation and fear," he said.

Immediately after the blast, the Port Authority said its sprawling terminal remained open except for the entrance to the subway on Eighth Avenue. Later, the terminal was closed for about an hour before reopening.

President Trump was being briefed on the incident, the White House said.

"While details are still emerging, I want to salute and thank @NYPD @FDNY and all our 1st Responders for their swift response to the explosion today," tweeted Rep. Nydia Margarita Velázquez, whose district includes parts of Lower Manhattan.

Since the terror attacks of 9/11, several attacks have rocked New York. On Oct. 31, a motorist in a rented pickup drove down a lower Manhattan bike path, killing eight people and wounding a dozen more before crashing into a school bus.

The Islamic State claimed responsibility, and Sayfullo Saipov, a 29-year-old Uzbekistan native and New Jersey resident, was charged with providing material support to ISIS, violence and destruction of motor vehicles.

On Monday, NJ Transit passenger Nadine Hovan sat on her bus looking out onto 8th Avenue, alarmed to see scores of people with their phones up in the air. Once inside the bus terminal, she heard people yelling to get out of the building.

"That is when people start to get a little crazy," she said.

She said she didn't panic — but might have if she knew what was going on. She also said the attack wouldn't intimidate her from returning to the city.

"You got to live your life," she said. "You got to work. You can't stay locked up in your house all the time."

Damn! That's all I can say right now.

Islam...the “Religion of Peace”...

we have been very fortunate that the people here stupid enough to blow themselves up in the name of religion also happen to be stupid enough not to be able to build a proper explosive device in the first place.

then again, it does make sense.

If guns were illegal, this wouldn't have happened.

We have a gun problem in the US.

almost as peaceful as a guy in Vegas with 3 or 4 guns and a clean shot at a country fest

Funny.

But this is another incident of insane people doing insane things,

This is backlash from the religion of peace for announcing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

Link to a confirmation.

Your own personal opinion is not vaild.

One is an ideology with trends for committing terrorist attacks and the other is a lone wolf.

how many americans dead this year from domestic terrorism?

how many americans dead this year in the states from international terrorism?

which one should we pay more attention to and why?

I think any group of people react far more to an outside threat than to an inside threat. If you want to talk purely numbers, then the headlines everyday should be about cancer and heart diseae deaths since they kill more in a year than likely every sensationalized mass shooting in history.

I suppose people fear terrorism more because it is not the actions of a deranged, distrubed or evil individual, but rather the cold and calculating actions of someone looking to achieve political gain. If the US started sending death sqauds up and killing a handful of canadians a year, I'm sure the Canadian people would react far more strongly to that than to the higher numbers of people killed in regular homicides.

I think its more fair to compare a risk of being killed by a mass shooter to the risk of being killed by an islamic terrorist then it is to put cancer into the mix.

it should at the very least be somewhat similar otherwise I will just say 'old age beats them all!' and then the conversation just get absurdely disgusting, which to be fair it likely already is

You're comparing two things that are incredibly rare. Chances are you could live 100 lifetimes and not be killed by either.

and that doesnt matter.

if you want to talk about something it HAS to be relative to something else, so if its rare? fine ok, compare it to something rare.

but what you are trying to do either on purpose or not aware of it is claim that it cant be compared to anything at all whatsoever, but it can and 'both items are rare' is not a good reason to not compare them.

Bottom line here is that domestic terrorism is real, its serious, its pervasive, its a huge problem and its disgusting and vial frankly to sweep it under the rug as unimportant and YES...you absolutely positively CAN compare it to islamic terrorism

I dont think anyone is sweeping it under the rug since it got huge coverage. But I guarantee you that any country will react far stronger to perceived foreigners killing their citizens, than those domestically. It's tribalism at its finest. The problem with islamic terrorism is that its not just in the US. It's all over the world. In Europe, in Africa, in the middle east, in Asia. It travels well.

yes your description of human reactions is correct.

however I try to point out that domestic terrorism is far more serious.

To play devil's advocate. If you control for populations, per capita, what kills more? The number of "radical islamists" in this country is rather small compared to white men. yet, the number of people killed by each in these mass shootings is comparable.

in the united states I suspect its STILL domestic terrorism.

but think on this for a second, you are in charge of national security for your country, your arguement on why you should pay more attention to the crime of less violent occurrences then one of more is because of what? because the ratio of their population is different over seas?

really? seriously? not a chance. I want you to address the most violent, most deaths and I dont give $%^&*() what the ratio is of the population they came from!

Does that mean we should ignore police shootings of minorities, since that results in far less minority deaths than other homicides?

I dont know because I dont know the numbers, but maybe we do!

it would be racist to do so but maybe its the right step.

But here is what leaves me physically ill with disgust and I would assume you would not understand this but I am going to try. What makes me sick is when people want to look away at domestic terrorism kiling 10+ on a nearly monthly basis but instead go in complete total outrage overkill 5 alarm fire over a guy who didnt kill anyone but tried.

I find that truly disgusting. but that is just me

Domestic terrorism is even rarer than mass shootings.

It has to be politically motivated to be considered as a terrorist act.

oh for **** sake then just replace everything I said when I wrote 'domestic terrorism' and replace it with 'mass shotting' and get past it!