The Latest: FBI questions car’s occupants in NYC blast probe

NEW YORK (AP) – The Latest on an explosion hitting a crowded Manhattan neighborhood (all times local):

11:30 p.m.

Authorities say FBI agents pulled over a car on a highway in Brooklyn and are questioning the vehicle’s occupants in connection with the investigation of the bombing in Manhattan.

FBI spokeswoman Kelly Langmesser says agents stopped “a vehicle of interest in the investigation” at 8:45 p.m. Sunday.

She wouldn’t provide further details, but a government official and a law enforcement official who were briefed on the investigation said five people in the car were being questioned at an FBI building in lower Manhattan.

The two officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk about an ongoing investigation.

Langmesser said no one has been charged with any crime and the investigation is continuing.

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9 p.m.

A team of five FBI agents have searched an Uber driver’s vehicle that had been damaged in the Manhattan blast, ripping off the door panels inside as they examined it for evidence.

The driver, MD Alam, had just picked up three passengers and was driving along 23rd Street when the explosion occurred, shattering the car’s windows and leaving gaping holes in the rear passenger-side door.

Alam said Sunday he hit the gas and tried to take his passengers to their destination in Queens, but pulled over along Madison Avenue and 39th Street. He went to a local police precinct to file a report for his insurance company and police contacted the FBI.

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8 p.m.

New York City police say they’ve blown up the second device found blocks away from where a bomb exploded in Manhattan.

The New York Police Department says the controlled detonation took place at a police facility in the Bronx on Sunday evening. They said the device has been rendered safe and that a forensic examination of the device will be conducted at the FBI Laboratory at Quantico, Virginia.

The second device was discovered Saturday night by state troopers after a bomb exploded in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood. Twenty-nine people were injured in that blast. They’ve all since been released from hospitals.

The second device was described by a law enforcement official as a pressure-cooker with wires and a cellphone attached to it. It was taken from the scene by a bomb removal robot.