Suicide bomber fails in NYC subway attack
A would-be suicide bomber detonated a pipe bomb in Manhattan’s busiest subway corridor, seriously injuring only himself.
NEW YORK — 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.
He chose the location because of its Christmasthemed posters, recalling strikes in Europe against Christmas markets, he told investigators, and set off his bomb in retaliation for U.S. airstrikes on Islamic State targets in Syria and elsewhere, several law enforcement officials said.
But his makeshift weapon sputtered. The attacker himself was the only one seriously injured.
A suspect, identified by police as Akayed Ullah, 27, an immigrant from Bangladesh who lived in Brooklyn, was in police custody. He suffered burns to his hands and abdomen and was at Bellevue Hospital Center, according to Daniel A. Nigro, commissioner of the New York Fire Department. Three other people had minor injuries, he said.
The attack, at 7:20 a.m., occurred in a long pedestrian walkway connecting the Eighth Avenue, Seventh Avenue and Broadway subway lines. Walking among the commuters trudging beneath Times Square was a man in a hooded sweatshirt. Then a deafening boom — from him — and then smoke. Then everyone ran. Ullah had attached the pipe bomb to himself with a “combination of Velcro and zip ties,” said James P. O’Neill, commissioner of the New York Police Department.
The secure fastening may have indicated that Ullah entered the subway intending to carry out a suicide bombing.
At a news conference on Eighth Avenue just outside the Port Authority, police displayed a picture of Ullah that appeared to have been taken inside the subway walkway after the blast. In it, he is curled in a fetal position; his exposed stomach is blackened.
Ullah acted alone, Mayor Bill de Blasio said, adding that no other devices had been found.
“Our lives revolve around the subway,” the mayor said. “The choice of New York is always for a reason, because we are a beacon to the world. And we actually show that a society of many faiths and many backgrounds can work.”
“The terrorists want to undermine that,” he added. “They yearn to attack New York City.”