The US police found explosive devices in an early-morning raid on a New York apartment yesterday and arrested three men of Middle Eastern origin, two of whom were shot and wounded. The bomb squad's search of the apartment uncovered what appeared to be a pipe bomb, police sources said, but city and federal officials declined to comment on the devices.
"We don't know exactly what this is at this point, but obviously the investigation is continuing," said Mr James Kallstrom, the head of New York's FBI office. The Mayor of New York, Mr Rudolph Giuliani, said police ordered the raid after receiving a tip late on Wednesday. He said police entered the apartment at 4.40 a.m. local time. "The individuals involved are Middle Eastern, but we don't have definite confirmation of their nations of origin yet," the mayor told reporters at the site of the discovery in the residential Park Slope neighbourhood of Brooklyn.
Mr Giuliani said the shootings happened when one of the men appeared to reach for an object while the raid was in progress.
"They had reason to believe that at least one or possibly both men were in the process of activating a bomb," Mr Giuliani said. "It may turn out that they were, it may turn out that this device isn't, but in any event that's what they thought was going on."
The two wounded men were being treated at the King's County hospital. Mr Giuliani said police officers found an unspecified number of explosive devices, "as many as two possibly activated".
The raid created chaos for residents in the neighbourhood as police awoke them in the early hours.
US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright is considering a trip to the Middle East following the suicide bombing in Jerusalem, US officials said yesterday. An Albright trip "is an option under consideration", said a senior State Department official who asked not to be identified.