SEASIDE PARK (WTXF) - The FBI is the lead agency on the bomb investigation. Agents are taking the remnants of the explosive device to Quantico for analysis. The FBI also analyzing the device that exploded in lower Manhattan to see if there are any similarities.
Governor Chris Christie said, "It is clearly an act of terrorism...the people of NJ."
Act of terrorism.
"I live here, I work here, it's a small community it's not in season, but yet anything can happen at any moment and it's scary," Susan McGill said.
It looks quiet, peaceful and tranquil in Seaside Park at the Jersey shore, but local residents, like Susan McGill are on edge after an explosive device detonated as a charity Marine Corp race was about to start on Saturday morning.
"It was definitely at an attack against the military that's my opinion and I'm afraid and I'm not afraid to say it."
The Semper Five 5k had been delayed because a backpack was left unattended and organizers were also trying to deal with extra race day registrations. The device exploded in a trash can along the race route, but before runners were passing by.
"It's unnerving. You come out to support a cause for a run and something like that can happen, fortunately it was delayed at the start and nobody got hurt," Mike Baltrush, a runner, said.
Susan McGill says her friends children were waiting for their parents who planned to run the 5k.
"They were on the sidelines. They were scared waiting, they heard the blast go off, they're worried about where their parents were it was scary."
As people in Seaside Park try to come to grips with this potential terrorist act in their small community, at least one other shore town canceled an event scheduled for this weekend. And residents have been told to expect a heavier police presence for the next couple of days.