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The DNAinfo archives brought to you by WNYC.
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Two Men Who Found Chelsea Bomb Were Tourists From Egypt, Sources Say

By Murray Weiss | September 28, 2016 7:10pm
 Two men may have deactivated Ahmad Kahn Rahami's second bomb in Chelsea when they removed it from a suitcase and walked away with the luggage, officials said.
Two men may have deactivated Ahmad Kahn Rahami's second bomb in Chelsea when they removed it from a suitcase and walked away with the luggage, officials said.
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FBI

MANHATTAN — The two men who found the rolling suitcase that contained a pressure cooker bomb on West 27th Street and accidentally deactivated it have been identified as Egyptian tourists, DNAinfo New York has learned.

The duo, who have since returned to their native country, were vacationing in the Big Apple when terror suspect Ahmad Khan Rahami left a pressure cooker bomb on West 23rd Street and another device inside the luggage on West 27th Street, sources said.

They were staying at a Manhattan hotel and were strolling on West 27th Street when the floral patterned luggage containing the device caught their eye.

They inspected the suitcase, opened it and left the pressure cooker on the curb, apparently dislodging a flip phone that was attached to the bomb as a triggering mechanism, sources said.

They then walked off with the luggage and have been sought ever since, apparently unaware of their unwitting role in the international terrorist event.

DNAinfo New York was the first to report that the two men handled the luggage and accidentally deactivated it, and earlier this week disclosed first that investigators believed the men had left the country.

Federal investigators want to talk to them, and are arranging interviews in Egypt, sources said.

The device left on West 23rd Street exploded, injuring roughly 30 people with flying shrapnel.