Three people were lightly injured when an explosive device strapped to the body of 27-year-old Akayed Ullah detonated while he walked through the subway station underneath New York City’s Port Authority building. Akayed, a Bangladeshi national living in the US for seven years, was seriously injured in the explosion.
Former NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton told MSNBC that the man was inspired by the Islamic State (ISIS). Bratton said Akayed “was supposedly setting the device off in the name of ISIS.”
But according to authorities, the suspect told investigators that he had set off the bomb because he was upset over Israeli actions in the Gaza Strip.
Mayor Bill de Blasio called the incident an “attempted terrorist attack,” while Police Commissioner James O’Neill called it a “terror-related incident,” and Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the perpetrator used an amateur “effectively low-tech device.”
The FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force is also investigating the incident.