2 who took bag that held bomb identified

Investigators, probing bomb blasts in New Jersey and New York, believe that they have identified two men, who walked off with a bag abandoned by the bomber on a street as Egyptian tourists.

The police began looking for the men, after they were seen in security video handling a bag prosecutors say was used by bombing suspect Ahmad Khan Rahami to conceal an explosive that failed to detonate in Manhattan.

A law enforcement official said the two men have since returned to their home to Egypt. The official wasn’t authorised to discuss the investigation and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

US investigators have notified Egyptian authorities they want to question the men.

“They are not in any jeopardy of being arrested,” Jim Watters, chief of the New York Police Department’s counterterrorism unit, said last week. He added: “We have no reason to believe they are connected.” 

Rahami has been accused of detonating a pipe bomb in a New Jersey and a pressure cooker bomb in New York on September 17. No one was injured in the Jersey blast, and 31 people were injured in the New York blast. Surveillance video shows Rahami rolling a suitcase down a Manhattan street, then abandoning it on the sidewalk where that unexploded device was found.