we're at long island's hofstra university next sunday to preview the first presidential debate, which you may hear something about in the next week or so. see you then. >> we start with a fox news alert on what's now being acknowledged as an act of terrorism bic terrorism. we expect an update on an explosion on a new york city street and another pressure cooker bomb four brolocks away. this morning, new york governor and row cuomo pledged to find whoever put that device in a dump ster, left another in a garbage can as people enjoy baumdy saturday night here in

manhattan. >> well, the blast capping a day of frightening incidents, starting on the new jersey shore. a pipe bomb exploded in a trash can before thousands of runners began a charity 5k race. in minnesota a man went on a stabbing spree through a mall as police say he made reference to allah. just before 9:00 eastern last night, a massive explosion rocked 23rd street in new york city, injuring 29 people followed by the discovery of another suspicious device. we have live fox coverage. dan spring sr. in our newsroom following the minnesota investigation. elizabeth is in washington with the presidential candidates' reaction. we begin with david lee in new york city. >> reporter: this neighborhood slowly is returning to normal. very slowly. take a look here. this is new york's fifth avenue. this has been open to traffic. you can see the pedestrians, the

vehicles stopped at light here. take a look at 23rd street, which is right behind me. you can see that this area is till sealed off. about a block and a half down the street. it is still an active crime scene. investigators still trying to determine what took place a little more than 12 hours ago. first now, let me give you the good news. all 29 people that you mentioned who were injured have now been released from the hospital. but this blast could have been deadly. the explosive device was found in or near a dumpster. authorities say it did extensive damage to nearby buildings, shattering windows, even sending a chandelier crashing to the floor. then three hours later, there was a device found four blocks north of here. according to published reports, it was a pressure cooker with a cell phone attached. new york governor and row cuomo says the pressure cooker device

resembled the device that actually exploded. governor cuomo joined by new york mayor bill de blasio just a few moments ago toured the site. here's what governor cuomo said a short time earlier about a possible motive. >> a bomb exploding in new york is obviously an act of terrorism, but it's not linked to international terrorism. in other words, we find no isis connection, et cetera. but a bomb going off is generically a terrorist activity. >> reporter: and now another piece of the puzzle. early saturday morning, a pipe bomb exploded in seaside park, new jersey, at a charity event for marines and sailors. governor cuomo said this device, a pipe bomb, appeared to be very different than the two devices that were found here in new york city. all three of them now being sent

for examination to an fbi lab. lastly, new yorkers remain on edge. there have been at least a couple reports, false alarms of suspicious objects that have been fond. authorities in and around this neighborhood have been posting signs, offering as much as $2500 for tips leading to informing that helps stop a crime. we expect to get a great deal more informing when a news conference begins with bill de bh blas yoe. they have in the identifiedin yet as possible suspect. they're reviewing the surveillance recordings. the recordings that show the explosion itself as well as what took place earlier. so far, they have not been able to identify a suspect and/or a specific mote eve. back to you. >> david lee, we're waiting for that live press conference with

mayor de blasio. meanwhile, thanks so much for those detalts there in chelsea. eric? >> now to fresh concerns concerning terrorism in the heartland. in minnesota, media claimed that knife-wielding suspect that went on a stabbing free at a mall, isis claims he was, quote a soldier of the islamic state. this as the fbi is now actively engaged in the investigation there. dan springer is following the story from los angeles. hi, dan. >> reporter: yeah, hey, eric. it was just within the last hour that islamic state claimed responsibility for the attack in st. cloud. the isis news agency put out a statement saying the executer of the attacks in minnesota yesterday was a soldier of the islamic state and carried out the operation in response to calls to target citizens of countries belonging to the crusader coalition. now, the fbi is involved in the investigation, as you said, but they have not yet labeled this as an act of terrorism. all signs are pointing in that

direction. of course, the attacker whose name has not been released, was right in a busy seck of the crossroads mall in st. cloud, which is about an hour from minneapolis. he was dressed like a private security officer, had a knife, and just started stabbing people. according to police, he seemed to be targeting non-muslims. >> at prkly 8:00, an armed suspect entered the crossroads mall. that individual made some references to allah. we have confirmed he asked at least one person if they were muslim before he assaulted them. >> reporter: eight people were injured. fortunately, none of the injuries are life threatening. seven of the eight have already been released. police eventually shot and killed the attacker, whose name has not been released. we should be hearing more from police today. right now the mall remains shut down as a crime scene. this happened just months after three somali men were convicted on terror charges in minneapolis.

six other muslims pled guilty. the arrest were part of a federal effort called countering violent extremism. at time, the fbi said the large somali community in minneapolis had been disproportion fgtionat recruited by terrorist recruiters. again, we expect to hear more from the fbi and local authorities later today. eric? >> all right, dan. we'll be waiting for that news conference. of course, we'll bring it to you live here on the fox news channel. thank you. >> meanwhile, we're going to be waiting for that news conference with mayor de blasio. we have reaction on that explosion in new york city. both donald trump and hillary clinton weighing in on the blast in different ways. elizabeth pran is live in washington with that part of the story. >> reporter: you're right. the can did thes and their surrogates and running mates are getting pu inting pushed to rea.

what they're doing similarly is criticizing each other. we heard first from donald trump. he spoke in colorado immediately after the news broke, calling the explosion a bomb. his reaction is getting praise from his supporters. >> boy, we are living in a time. we better get very tough, folks. we better get very, very tough. just happened, so we'll find out, but it's a terrible they think going on in our world and in our country. and we are going to get tough and smart and vigilant. >> i think what donald did was perfectly appropriate to tell that group of colorado springs that a bomb had exploded. this is typical mrs. clinton. she has absolutely no basis to be critical of what he did yesterday. but since her campaign is only based upon that, that's the only, you know, issue she could go to. >> reporter: let's go to the other side of the aisle. we saw hillary clinton respond differently as the can it the told reporters more information is needed before she responded. she was praise bid her running mate after those comments were

made aboard her airplane. >> i think it's always wiser to wait until you have information before making conclusions because we are just in the beginning stages of trying to determine what happened. >> the main feeling we have is concern for the victims, and for an explosion of that size, the fact there are no fatalities yet is positive. in terms of the details, it's unclear. and i know everyone is looking to see what the cause was. could it potentially be connected to terrorism? no evidence yet, but i know that's going to be looked at very, very closely. >> reporter: we often see both candidates head to twitter. donald trump writing in part, i'd like to express my warmest regards and condolences to all of the families and victims of the horrible bombing in nyc. we haven't seen any updates to clinton's twitter feed just yet. >> thanks so much, elizabeth. now let's bring in steve rogers,

former member of the fbi's joint terrorism task force and retired lieutenant commander from the office of naval intelligence. good to have you here on this busy morning. so many questions. i want to start here, that they're going to be sending, i guess, piece of that pressure cooker that cause the the explosion on west 23rd street in chelsea to quantico, the fbi lab in virginia. what could they be looking for? i understand they're looking for forensics. >> they're going to take the bomb fragments from what occurred in new jersey, the fragments and evidence they gathered in new york, and they're going to make a comparative analysis to see if there's any connection to those things. i've got to tell you, we are under attack. new york, new jersey, minnesota. when i say we, in the intelligence community, have said all along the battlefield was going to be moved from the middle east to the streets of the united states of america. we don't need politicians who are politically correct and are going to give us sanitized

explanations to explain to us we're not under attack. we see it, we believe it, and now as donald trump said, we have to be vigilant. rvelt steve, tell me what that means, if you're saying that we, the intelligence community, you're saying that we are rnd attack. that is the sentiment amongst your colleagues. what does that mean in terms of how we fight this fight against terrorism? >> to begin with, obviously there will have to be a strong military response in the mid-east where command and control headquarters are. cut them off at the head. secondly, more important in the homeland, the department of homeland security has to start funding local police departments and give these officers in every police department across the country the tools they need to collect and gather intelligence. that is critically important. >> okay. meanwhile, governor cuomo, governor of new york, said this morning at a press conference that 1,000 state police officers as well as national guard forces will be deployed here in new york city, searching, you know,

bus terminal, searching the subway stations. obviously the trash cans and things like that across the city. how does this help the investigation here in new york city at present? >> well, pabasically it'll help this investigation if they find anything else and grab that evidence before anything else happens. you could send thousands of people into the city, law enforcement people, to look around and to search. we've got start thinking about fighting this war from an intelligence gathering methodology. this is the only way we're dwoegoing to prevent a number of attacks from occurring. >> in terms of collecting data from the intelligence standpoint, what's going right, but what's missing as well? >> well, a couple things are missing. first of all, the new york city police department, best in the world. they're doing a great job. no question about it. what's missing is giving local police departments around the country the training they need

to share with them what to look for, what to gather, what to send up the chain. we also need this. and i got a lot of heat for saying this, but we need to give the nsa power back that they need in order to tap into a lot of chatter that's going on around the world. don't forget, the white house has restricted them to some degree to doing the job they need to do to prechbvent anothe attack. >> all right, steve. i have more questions. stand by as we await this news conference from mayor bill de blasio. we'll get more details from that presser. we'll bring it to you live when it happens. meanwhile, eric -- >> you know, from the spree of terrorist bombings and the weather underground revoluti revolutionarie revolutionaries, there was the bombingquarters in 1982. a bombing at lagarde why airport in 1975.

that's when terrorists put a bomb actually in a locker, a baggage locker at laguardia airport. it exploded. 11 people were killed. this is what we went through in this country for years. 4,000 bombings in 1969 across our country. several hundred a year just in new york city. of course, there was the mad bomber back in the '50s who set off 33 bombs and killed -- injured, not killed, 16 people. we've had this for years. now some are wondering and questioning if we've returned to a spate of new terrorist bombings with this pressure cooker again. >> eric, i'll pick up there with steve. as we awaited this presser, i may have to jump in. you mentioned one of the critical pieces missing today is the training for local police departments. so -- and i think we have the

mayor approaching the podium now. let me just stop myself here and let's listen in here. >> that is the police commissioner, james o'neil, the city of new york. >> yes. so that's police commissioner james o'neil. perhaps he'll address some of the concerns you mentioned, steve, in terms of training the police department. let's listen in. >> an update on the investigation of last night's events. with me is john miller, ben tucker, carlos gomez from the fbi, bill sweeny, joe esposito, and the mayor. the mayor is going to start off with some comments. >> thank you very much, commissioner. you're going to hear after i give some opening comments from commission r o'neil in detail.

and bill sweeny, assistant director at fbi. i want to thank our federal partners. we're working very, very closely with the fbi to determine exactly what happened here. i was in the affected area this morning talking to residents, governor cuomo and i spoke to a number of people who live and work in that area. i want to say at outset, i want to commend my fellow new yorkers who deal with challenges with incredible resilience si, who are strong, who are focused on going about their every day business, who are not intimidate bid anything. that's something we're very proud of here in the city. i talked to a lot of people, including folks in their homes or businesses at the moment the explosion occurred last night. they uniformly said it worried them for sure, but they also said it was not going to change anything they were doing today. i saw people out there going

about their business as usual. i also saw an extraordinary response by the nypd, the fdny. folks said how reassured they were by the speedy response. they understand there's an ongoing investigation. it will take some time. by and large, people are getting back to business as usual. we heard a good report on the mta. no damage there. that will be up and running soon at that subway stop. the attitude people took was one of gratitude for our first responders and a sense they were safe now with the kind of presence that was around them at this point. now, this was a very serious incident. it's going to take a lot of careful investigation to get to the facts and truth. we're going to be very careful and patient to get to the full truth here. we are not going to jmp to conclusions. we're not going to offer you easy answers.

we're going to make sure we have all the facts. we know there was a bombing. that much we do know. we know it's a very serious incident, but we have a lot more work to do to be able to say what kind of motivation was behind this. was it a political motivation, a personal motivation? we don't know that yet. that work must go on. we're going to give you regular updates as we get more information. in terms of those who are affect bid this incident, 29 vi individuals were injured, all have been released from the hospital. you'll hear more about response of the fdny. our thoughts and prayers are with all of them for a full recovery, but i'm very, very pleased to say they're all out of the hospital. now, for all new yorkers, a

central message we want to give today is be vigilant. be vigilant at this potent in time. not just because of this incident, but we're going boo united nations assembly week. the police need your help. and if you see anything that might be pertinent to this case, we need you to call it in. and you should know you will see a very substantial nypd presence this week. bigger than ever. we would formally have an expand presence for the united nations general assembly. you'll see an even stronger presence now. new yorkers always tell me how reassured they are by seeing our officers, including our newer units, such as critical response command and the strategic response group, seeing them out in force and seeing them at the scene of obviously key public locations around the united nations, around times square, a lot of other places, well armed,

well trained. this new unit and the capacity it has are crucial it keeping the city safe. you'll see a lot of them this week. that capacity we built -- and commissioner o'neil was a crucial part of that effort. the capacity we built over the last few years in response to events we've seen around the world gives us the strongest anti-terror capacity of any city if the country. fully in use this week. now, we know from everything we've seen so far that this was an intentional act. i want to reaffirm what i said last night. again, we do not know the motivation. we do not know the nature of it. that's what we have to do more work on. the agencies continue to look to see if there's any specific connection to the incident in new jersey. at this point, we do not have

any specific evidence of a cec connection, but that will continue to be considered. all possible theories of what's happened here and how it connects will be looked at. we have no specific evidence at this point in time. again, we're going to urge all new yorkers to be patient as we get down to the bottom of what happened here. we want to be accurate. i think the most important thing is to give people a clear and accurate picture of what happened and bring to justice whoever was involved in this incident. the nypd is using its full capacity o find anyone involved and bring them to justice. if you have any information that might link to this incident, video, photos, eyewitness accounts, overheard conversation, anything, please call the ny prk d at

1-800-577-tips. new yorkers, as always, are not intimidated. that's part of who we are. we'll go about our business and help our police to do the jobs they do, and they are the finest in the world. quickly in spanish -- [ speaking in spanish ] with that ishlg turn back to commissioner o'neil. >> thank you, mr. mayor. an update on last night's incident and what's going on right now. so we have two sfreparate crime scenes. keep in mind, we're in the middle of a very complex,

post-blast investigation. a number of agencies involved. of course, the nypd, fdny, atf, and state police. we're still gathering evidence at 23rd street. we did fiend some components indicative of an ied. we are -- we moved a device from 27th street up to rodman's neck last night, and the bomb squad in the process of working on that device right now. so of course they're taking their time and want to make sure that we use as much time as necessary to make that determination, what that device consists of. we've recovered video from both scenes. we're continuing to canvas for witnesses and additional video. we're looking to speak to anyone in the vicinity of either location last night. we need people to call 1-800-577-tips, as the mayor said. as new yorkers usually do, we

received numerous number of phone calls. right now this is a parallel investigation with the nypd, the jttf, and the fbi. we're always on alert in new york city. this is a device, as the mayor said that, went off intentionally. if this happened in another city, of course we'd ramp up our security. it happened here, so i'll ramp up our security even more. chief gomez is going to speak about that in a couple minutes. we talked about this over the last two years, how we foiled 20 plots in new york city. that was done by a very professional, high lly trained w enforcement agencies. this violent act is going to be solved by that same group of people. new york city residents can rest assured that we'll get to the bottom of this. right now we're not discounting anything at this point. again, we're in the process of a complex investigation to determine who did this and why they did this. carlos is going to talk about

the counterterrorism overlay. there are a lot of things going on in the city today. we just need people in new york to rest assure that we're going to do our best to protect them. right now we don't have enough information to make any final conclusion. as the mayor said, we don't know if there's any political or social motivation, but we definitely had a bombing last night on 23rd street. we had a suspicious device on 27th street. so we're going to move this investigation forward, and we finally make that determination, we'll make sure we let everybody know. right now assistant director in charge from the fbi bill sweeny is going to make some comments. >> good afternoon. the fbi/nypd joint terrorism traffic force is fully engaged. the investigation is still in its early stages. our thoughts are with the victims, and we hope for quick recoveries for all. the evidence we've collected is being taken to our lab at quantico for review. we are following every viable

lead as we continue to work jointly with the nypd and the fdny and all of our local state and federal partners. i expect evidence collection to continue for at least four to five more hours on the street itself. we have not yet made entry into the residences in the buildings on that street. we are very grateful for the assistance and the patience of those residents in that neighborhood. the new york jttf is also working side by side with the newark, new jersey, based jttf. we'll also bring additional resources in if we need them. if anyone has any information, we ask you to use the tip line at 1-800-577-tips or commit a tip at our website at www.fbi.gov. it is vitally important we do not inadvertently disclose information that could inform the subjects. i think the public understands the need for that level of operational security. for that reason, i do not expect to answer specific questions on

how much and what we know. thank you. >> thanks, bill. commissioner is going to give you an update on those injured last night. >> thank you. last night was an extremely well-coordinated response to that attack. our members of the fire department were able to identify, treat, and transport 29 people quickly. i'm happy to say that as of this morning, all 29 injured people have been released from the hospital. that's very good news. the fire department along with the building department also examined the buildings that were damaged in the explosion and found them to be structurally stable. there was no structural damage. and again, that's good news. you'll hear a little from chief gomez about how the police department is prepared moving forward and the fire department is certainly as prepared. chief leonard and i coordinating our people on the ground to

support that effort. that's the news from the fire department. >> thanks, commissioner. chief gomez is now going to give you an update on what's going on throughout the city. >> well, good afternoon. today there are several special events occurring throughout the city. actually, in all five boroughs. we've increased our police presence in each of these events. we've add more officer to it. we've always added more counterterrorism officers as well as heavy weapons teams in some of these events. teams from the strategic response group as well as the critical response command. commuters in our transit system will be fregreet bid more offic also. we' we'll be doing enhanced bag checks throughout the city. there will be more canines in the transit system. we are coordinating with our partners in the mta as well as

the port authority. heavy weapons teams will also be assigned to our transit hub aens certain stations. as for traffic, 23rd street and 27th street obviously remain closed. we're processing the climb scene. 6th avenue remains closed. please avoid that area. we'll try to clear it up as soon as we can. thank you. >> just before we take some questions, i just want to thank all the members of law enforcement that responded to the scene last night. i specifically want to thank the men and women from the new york city police department bomb squad who safely removed that twice from 27th street and transported it up to rodman's neck and are right now working on determining what that actually consists of. so i'd like to thank the men and women of the bomb squad. >> of course, we took a good

look that the. we haven't made the determination that there's any significant to either location. >> [ inaudible question ]. >> at lee at this point, no individual or group has called to claim responsibility. >> [ inaudible question ]. >> new york city is always in a sta state of alert based on us being the number one target if the world. that's why we ramped up the issue. that's why we have hercules teams and cr chiropractic. we're always in a state of readiness. >> to follow up, something that you said you were monitoring closely. what specifically does that mean? >> it means we're trying to determine if there's a connection. at this point, we have not made