New Jersey bomb: Video shows dramatic moment robot cuts wrong wire on explosive device

'Imagine if all five of them went off at the same time... the loss of life could have been enormous'

A dramatic video has emerged of the moment a police robot accidentally detonated one of five explosive devices left outside a train station in New Jersey.

Officials said the bomb squad robot cut a wire on the mechanism in a bid to defuse it - but instead set off an explosion.

The device had been left in a backpack and placed in a bin outside the train station in Elizabeth, New Jersey.

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It was reported by two men late on Sunday evening, who said they saw wires and a pipe coming out of the bag. When it was emptied, as many as five potential explosive devices tumbled out.

"I can imagine that if all five of them went off at the same time, that the loss of life could have been enormous if there was an event going on," Elizabeth mayor Christian Bollwage said.

Police had set up a cordon around the bin before sending in the robot, and no one was injured in the blast. It followed a series of attacks in the US over the weekend, including a Saturday night bombing that hurt 29 people in Manhattan.

Mr Bollwage said it was unclear whether Elizabeth, a city with a population of nearly 130,000 people that is less than 15 miles (24 km) southwest of Manhattan, was deliberateyl targeted, or if the backpack might have been discarded to elude investigators.