FBI probes blast along route of N.J. charity run to aid military

SEASIDE PARK, N.J. — A pipe bomb exploded in a New Jersey shore town Saturday shortly before thousands of runners were to participate in a charity 5K race to benefit Marines and sailors, authorities said.

No injuries were reported in the blast in Seaside Park around 9:30 a.m. Saturday, said Al Della Fave, spokesman for the Ocean County Prosecutor’s office. He said no surrounding structures were damaged.

The FBI has taken over as the lead agency in the investigation. But officials would not say whether they believe the incident was terror-related or if they suspected participants in the third annual Semper Five run were targeted.

Brad Cohen, the acting special agent in charge of the FBI’s office in Newark, declined to discuss the matter at length during a brief news conference staged Saturday evening. He also declined to take questions from reporters, citing the “active, ongoing” investigation.

The race had been scheduled to start shortly before the blast occurred, but it was delayed due to the large numbers of people registering for the race and reports of an unattended backpack being found. Della Fave noted that if the race had started on time, a “good number of people” would have been running past the area where the explosion occurred.

The race was canceled, and the immediate area was put on lockdown. Several homes near the scene were evacuated as a precaution, though those residents were allowed to return home early Saturday night.

The pipe bomb was in a plastic garbage can when it exploded, Della Fave said, but the immediate area where the blast occurred was mostly empty at the time. Authorities immediately cleared the boardwalk and beach area, and bomb-sniffing dogs were used to search the area.

Shortly after the blast occurred, Della Fave told reporters at the scene that preliminary reports said there may have been other devices connected to the pipe bomb, but those devices apparently had not gone off.

New Jersey State Police said later in the day that bomb technicians “rendered safe” items located in a plastic trash can where the explosion occurred; they did not specify what those items were.