ELIZABETH, N.J. (AP) — Investigators examined a suspicious device found Sunday night in a trash can near a New Jersey train station, and service on the busy Northeast Corridor line was suspended.
Elizabeth Mayor Christian Bollwage said two men called police and reported seeing wires and a pipe coming out of the package after finding it at about 9:30 p.m. Sunday.
Media at the scene reported early Monday hearing a loud explosion and smelling gunpowder after Bollwage earlier said that the Union County bomb squad’s robotic device indicated the package the men left near a train trestle could be a live bomb. He said the FBI and state police would decide how to remove the device. It wasn’t immediately known if the blast was a controlled explosion.
There was no immediate report of injuries or damage. A message left with the FBI wasn’t immediately returned.
New Jersey Transit service was suspended early Monday between Newark Liberty Airport and Elizabeth, and New Jersey-bound Amtrak trains were being held at New York Penn Station, officials said.
Riders reported being stuck on Amtrak and NJ Transit trains for hours Sunday night, while some trains moved in reverse to let passengers off at other stations.
The discovery of the suspicious package comes a day after an explosion in Manhattan injured 29 people, and an unexploded pressure-cooker device was found four blocks away. Also Saturday, a pipe bomb exploded about an hour from the Elizabeth train station in Seaside Park, New Jersey, forcing the cancellation of a military charity 5K run. Officials said it didn’t appear that those two incidents were connected, though they weren’t ruling anything out.