4th LD Writethru: Four injured in New York City blast, suspect nabbed

NEW YORK, Dec. 11 (Xinhua) -- Four people were injured in an explosion in a passageway near Times Square, Manhattan in New York City early Monday morning.

At around 7:20 a.m. local time, a 27-year-old man, who had an improvised, low-tech explosive device attached to his body, intentionally detonated the device, injuring himself and three others, New York City Police Commissioner James O'Neil said at a press conference held near the scene.

O'Neil said police have identified the suspect as Akayed Ullah and have kept him in custody. He gave no further details about the suspect.

He added that the incident was captured on transit system video. A further review and witness interview is underway.

Police are calling for the general public to provide information about the suspect.

Authorities said three injured people had minor injuries such as ringing in the ear and headache.

Asked whether the suspect has connection with the Islamic State, O'Neil said, "He did make a statement but we are not going to talk about that right now."

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said at the same press conference that the incident was an attempted terrorist attack and "thank God the perpetrator did not achieve his ultimate goals."

He added that there are no additional known incidents or activities at this time. He assured the public that there are no credible and specific threats to New York City at the moment.

A pedestrian named Antonio told Xinhua that he was really concerned that such incident might seriously affect tourism in New York City because people will be worried about their safety and choose to travel to other places. Antonio works for a tourist bus company at Times Square.

The incident was the second in the fourth quarter of the year that New York City saw one individual conducted terror attack in the busiest areas of Manhattan.

On Oct. 31, eight people were killed and a dozen more injured after a truck plowed into pedestrians near the World Trade Center.

De Blasio called the incident "a particularly cowardly act of terror aimed at innocent civilians."

At the press conference on Monday, reporters asked police authorities why New York City seems to be seeing more frequent occurrence of terror attacks in recent days.

New York City Police Department Deputy Commissioner John Miller said approximately 26 plots have been prevented through intelligence investigation in New York City since the 9/11 attacks in 2001.

He added that authorities have put in enormous effort in preventing a significant number of plots and attacks.

He also mentioned the 26 plots that have been prevented were those "we can talk about." Enditem