FBI probes pipe bomb blasts in N.Y., N.J.

UPDATE (9/19/16, 2:35 p.m.): Federal investigators are not looking for more suspects in Saturday’s bomb attacks in New York and New Jersey. Officials believe Ahmad Khan Rahami acted alone.

Although the bombs differed slightly in construction, they shared one commonality—flip phone components. The device that exploded in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan on Saturday night resembled the pressure cooker bomb used in the 2013 Boston Marathon attack. Investigators later found a similar bomb at a nearby train station. It did not explode.

The device that detonated in Seaside Park, N.J., on Saturday morning was a pipe bomb. No one was hurt in that incident.

Police arrested Rahami at about noon today after a shootout. He suffered a gunshot wound to the leg and underwent surgery at a New Jersey hospital. The two officers wounded during the shootout did not suffer life-threatening injuries.

UPDATE (9/19/16, 12:01 p.m.): Police have captured the man wanted for questioning in a series of bomb attacks in New York and New Jersey. A photo posted to social media showed Ahmad Khan Rahami, a 28-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen from Afghanistan, lying on a sidewalk in Linden, N.J., his hands cuffed behind him.

Before surrendering, Rahami got into a shootout with officers. After his arrest, medics loaded him into an ambulance, but it’s not clear what injuries he might have. Two officers sustained gunshot wounds in the confrontation, according to police.

Investigators have not said what pointed them to Rahami.

UPDATE (9/19/16, 9:30 a.m.): Police are seeking Ahmad Khan Rahami, a 28-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen from Afghanistan, for questioning in the bombings in Seaside Park, N.J., and New York City Saturday. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio now admit that the blast could be an act of terrorism with a foreign connection.

FBI agents swarmed an apartment above a fried chicken restaurant that has ties to Rahami early today in Elizabeth, N.J. The apartment is near a train station where five explosive devices were found Sunday night.

Gov. Cuomo said as investigators gathered information they learned there were “certain commonalities among the bombs,” leading authorities to believe “that there was a common group behind the bombs.”

OUR EARLIER REPORT: Police in New York and New Jersey are investigating pipe bomb blasts that went off hours apart Saturday, raising fears of a possible coordinated attack. Although dozens of people sustained injuries in the Manhattan explosion, no one died in either incident.

The first bomb went off in Seaside Park, N.J., at about 9:30 a.m., just before a charity 5K race organized to benefit Marines and sailors. The large crowd of runners trying to register delayed the event and likely saved lives. Organizers say if the race had started on time, runners would have been passing by the site of the explosion when it detonated.

Thanks to the delay, few people were in the area at the time. The bomb was hidden in a plastic garbage can when it exploded. FBI investigators, who have taken over the case, have released few other details.

The second bomb went off on a busy street in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan at about 8:30 p.m. Initial reports indicated none of the 29 victims sustained life-threatening injuries, but officials later said one person might be more seriously hurt. Police believe the bomb was hidden in a construction toolbox left in front of a residence for the blind. The blast shattered windows of nearby businesses.

At a press conference late Saturday, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said police had “no evidence at this point of a terror connection.” But investigators do believe the bombing was an intentional act.