NEW YORK — A 27-year-old man detonated a crude pipe bomb strapped to his body inside a crowded Manhattan subway passage Monday morning, according to police — sending terrified commuters running for the exits and counterterrorism officials racing to unravel the second terrorist attack in the city in less than two months. “I heard something, but didn’t know what it was,’’ said Sam. “Today’s attempted mass murder attack in New York City — the second terrorist attack in New York in the last two months — once again highlights the urgent need for Congress to enact legislative reforms to protect the American people,” the president said in a statement, also referring to a deadly truck attack in Manhattan on Oct. 31.
– The man accused of detonating a bomb in a subway corridor near Times Square Monday morning carried the device strapped to himself on a 55-minute subway ride from his Brooklyn home, law enforcement officials say. Akayed Ullah, who came to the US from Bangladesh in 2011, injured himself and three others in the blast. Law enforcement officials tell the New York Daily News that the 27-year-old, who says he was inspired by ISIS, decided to set off the bomb in a commuter-packed passageway connecting three stations after seeing a Christmas poster. The pipe bomb was packed with explosive powder and detonated with a broken Christmas light, authorities say, but the explosion was not powerful enough to turn the pipe into deadly shrapnel. After the blast, Ullah was subdued by four Port Authority police officers. Ullah, who's expected to face numerous federal charges, was hospitalized with serious burns, while another three people received minor injuries. Law enforcement officials tell the New York Times that Ullah, who apparently worked for a car service after arriving in the US and more recently worked as an electrician, has told them he was radicalized online and found bomb-making instructions on the internet. Ullah came to the US on a preferential visa for people with relatives already in the US, and President Trump says the attempted terrorist attack is another reason to tighten immigration rules, the Washington Post reports. "Today's terror suspect entered our country through extended-family chain migration, which is incompatible with national security," he said Monday.