Bomb blast occurred in New York

photo of Ahmad Khan Rahami (photo: NYDP)

BBC REPORTS that New York officials are looking for Ahmad Khan Rahami, a naturalised US citizen who was born in Afghanistan for questioning over Saturday's blast in the Chelsea area of Manhattan.

Early on Monday, a backpack containing up to five devices exploded in Elizabeth, New Jersey, when a bomb disposal robot tried to deactivate it.

The bomb injured 29 people and another unexploded device was found nearby.

officials in search of the suspects (PHOTO: GETTY IMAGE)

Officials were searching a residence in the New Jersey city on Monday.

Both the bomb that went off in New York on Saturday and the unexploded device found nearby were shrapnel-filled pressure cookers, according to US media.

Officials had said over the weekend there were no confirmed links to international terrorist groups.

President Barack Obama, who is in New York for the United Nations General Assembly, is being kept up to date with the investigation, a White House spokesman said.