Updated on
Summary
A man described as a US citizen of Pakistani origin has been arrested in connection with an attempted car bombing in New York's Times Square. The man has been identified as Faisal Shahzad, 30, a Pakistani-American, and was arrested on Long Island, New York. A US TV said the man was trying to board a plane for an unknown location at John F Kennedy International Airport and that investigators were looking for others in the probe. The New York Times said the suspect lived in the US state of Connecticut. Authorities had launched a massive manhunt with the FBI's terrorism task force and local New York police to try to catch the would-be bomber. Shahzad had been linked to a sport utility vehicle seized with explosives late Saturday in the busy New York district. The police sources told US media that the man had recently returned from a trip to Pakistan and three weeks ago paid cash for the Nissan Pathfinder SUV used in the attempted bombing. It was sold by the vehicle's registered owner in Connecticut about three weeks ago without official paperwork changing hands, police said earlier. When authorities recovered the SUV it was laden with three propane tanks, dozens of firecrackers, two tanks of gasoline and fertiliser, and parked at the corner or West 45th Street and Broadway, an area full of pedestrians. So far, the only group to claim responsibility for the would-be bombing is the Pakistani militant group Tehreek-e-Taliban.
