New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said that it's looking likely that the bomb incidents in New York and New Jersey over the weekend could be linked to terrorism.
"It's certainly leaning more in the direction that this was a specific act of terror," de Blasio said during an interview on ABC's "Good Morning America."
De Blasio said that NYPD authorities are on high alert.
"NYPD is in a very high state of vigilance. We've beefed up our presence. You're going to see a lot of NYPD presence at key sites across the city, including our anti-terror capacity. I'm confident about what we have on the streets of New York City today."
On MSNBC's "Morning Joe" show, de Blasio said finding and bringing in the suspect, identified as Ahmad Khan Rahami, is Priority No. 1.
"We have now sent out an alert to every cell phone and electronic device all over the New York metropolitan area giving people this description, this photo. All of our NYPD officers have this photo and are looking for this individual," de Blasio said. "He is, we assume, armed and dangerous. People should recognize that, anyone with information about him should call 911. We do not yet know, and again, law enforcement has to be the ones to draw the conclusions. We do not yet know if this was a lone wolf or if it was something involving additional individuals."
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The mayor commented on five individuals that were detained on the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge.
"There was a car that came to the interest of the NYPD. That car was followed. They were pulled over. Those individuals have been questioned. There's definitely a situation there where we're learning more information."
De Blasio did not directly respond when asked if he believed more attacks were coming.
"I believe a couple of things. First, the amount of anti-terror capacity we have on the streets is extraordinary, the largest anti-terror capacity of any police force in the country," the mayor also said. "I'm very confident we're going to find the individual or individuals involved based on what I have heard in the last few hours. But I think we have more work to do."
It was too early to tell if there was a link between the incidents, de Blasio said. "In the coming hours, we'll be able to tell you more," he said.
Authorities suspect a possible terror cell, according to the mayor during an appearance on CNN.
De Blasio commented on Rahami, saying, "We know we want to get this individual in. And what's important now — and this is why we always want to make sure that law enforcement defines each step of the way what we believe is happening — we need the facts to be able to piece all this together to be able to define, was it an individual? Was it more than one individual? Do these different incidents relate? I think we're going to know a lot more over the course of the day. Things are moving very quickly."
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