One suspect in custody after explosion in subway in Manhattan

PanARMENIAN.Net - One male suspect is in custody after an explosion in the subway near Times Square, the New York Police Department said Monday, December 11, BuzzFeed News reports.

Police said there were no injuries other than the suspect after the explosion that occurred Monday morning at 42nd Street and 8th Avenue in Midtown Manhattan.

The A, C, and E lines are being evacuated and information is preliminary, police said. Authorities tweeted the origin of the explosion is unknown.

A commuter, Keith Woodfin, said officers were patrolling normally when he got into the second floor of the Port Authority bus station at around 7:20 a.m.

“They then got a radio call and ran down to the second floor shouting ‘go, go, go,’” he told BuzzFeed News.

Woodfin said the officers ran toward 8th Avenue, and the crowd on the first floor of the station “parted like the Red Sea.” He didn’t “hear or smell” anything, but said that suddenly “all the sirens started.”

“This was the first time I’ve ever seen them run like this in the Port Authority,” he said of the National Guard's reaction.

Another commuter, Rolan Mourin, getting off his usual 158 bus at the station, said he heard the explosion at around 7:30 a.m.

"We were heading downstairs when we heard the explosion,” he told BuzzFeed News. “People were then running from other directions towards us, shaken and [with] fear in their eyes.”

Mourin described the sound as a “loud pop [or] bang” and said he thought it had been a gunshot at first.