Security beefed up in Chicago following New York explosion

Chicago Police are increasing the number of patrol officers at transit hubs in response to a terrorist attack in New York on Monday, a police spokesman said.

Anthony Guglielmi, spokesman for the Chicago Police Department wrote on his Twitter "there are no credible threats to Chicago", Xinhua news agency reported. But he added that the department plans to make officers "highly visible" at Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) stops and Metra rail stations.

Guglielmi said the department has been in contact with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and New York's police department and they are monitoring everything very closely.

More officers and police cars are seen in Chicago's most populated area like North Michigan Avenue and Daley Plaza. At Christmas market in downtown, there are more more security guards at the entrance with several officers patrolling in between different vendors.

"You see there are cycling policemen coming over frequently, and we feel very safe in downtown Chicago," Lashawn Bell, a public transportation staff told Xinhua.

Four people were injured in an explosion in a passageway near Times Square, Manhattan in New York City early Monday morning.

A Bangladeshi-origin man was arrested on Monday after a "low-tech" suicide bomb he was was allegedly wearing went off injuring him and three others at the city's transportation hub at the start of the rush hour.

Police Commissioner James O'Neil told reporters that 27-year-old Akayed Ullah had on an "improvised low-tech explosive device attached to his body," which he "intentionally detonated".

--IANS

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