US mail bombs: FBI focuses on Flordia in hunt for culprit who sent 10 pipe bombs

A package addressed to former CIA head John Brennan that was sent to CNN's office in New York
AP
Patrick Grafton-Green26 October 2018

FBI agents have been chasing leads in Florida amid a nationwide hunt for the person who sent pipe bombs to Democrats and critics of Donald Trump.

It comes after actor Robert de Niro and former vice president Joe Biden became the latest high-profile figures to be targeted.

A mail distribution centre near Miami, where authorities believe several of the packages were processed, was being searched on Thursday.

A bomb squad and dog unit were sent to the facility in Opa-locka, Florida, to work alongside federal authorities.

A member of the bomb squad is shown outside a postal facility near Miami
AP

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, in an interview with Fox News Channel, confirmed that at least some of the packages were mailed in Florida.

"Some of the packages went through the mail. They originated, some of them, from Florida," she said. "I am confident that this person or people will be brought to justice."

Elsewhere on Thursday evening, Time Warner Center in New York, where news network CNN is based, was evacuated after two suspicious packages were found but this was later declared a false alarm.

The first package surfaced on Monday at the New York home of billionaire philanthropist George Soros, before the FBI identified five more targets on Wednesday.

Bomb scare at Robert De Niro's restaurant in New York

These were former president Barack Obama, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, former attorney general Eric Holder, former CIA director John Brennan, and California representative Maxine Waters. Two packages were found addressed to her.

Mr Brennan's package was sent to the Manhattan bureau of CNN, where he has appeared as an on-air analyst.

On Thursday, the investigation widened with the discovery of three additional packages - two intended for former Vice President Joe Biden in his home state of Delaware and one for Hollywood actor Robert De Niro in Manhattan.

"It does remain possible that further packages have been or could be mailed," William Sweeney, assistant director of the FBI, told a press conference in New York.

An x-ray of one of the pipe bombs
ABC NEWS

He said the manhunt for perpetrators involved hundreds of investigators nationwide.

Investigators are treating the devices as "live" explosives, not a hoax, James O'Neill, the police commissioner of New York City, said.

A federal law enforcement source told Reuters the devices were thought to have been fashioned from bomb-making designs widely available on the internet.

Authorities have branded the parcel bombs, coming less than two weeks before the crucial mid-term elections, as an act of terrorism.

The parcels each consisted of a manila envelope with bubble-wrap containing "potentially destructive devices," the FBI said.

Some of the packages sent to New York locations had envelopes of white powder in them but these are not believed to have biological threat.

All of the devices have been sent to the FBI's crime lab in Quantico, Virginia, for analysis.

The bombs have heightened what already was a contentious campaign season ahead of the November 6 mid-term elections in which Mr Trump's Republican Party will try to maintain majorities in the Senate and House of Representatives.

US President Donald Trump attacks the media after pipe bomb threats

Mr Trump condemned the bombs but later blamed the media for much of the angry tone in the nation's political discourse.

"A very big part of the Anger we see today in our society is caused by the purposely false and inaccurate reporting of the Mainstream Media that I refer to as Fake News," he wrote on Twitter.

"It has gotten so bad and hateful that it is beyond description. Mainstream Media must clean up its act, FAST!"