Pedestrians and subway and bus commuters in New York City were frightened by a explosion on Monday Dec 11. The bomb exploded among the subway traffic right underneath Times Square.

“This was an attempted terrorist attack,” New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said. “Thank God the perpetrator did not achieve his ultimate goals.”

The bomber, 27-year-old male, Akayed Ullah, attached the bomb he made in his apartment to himself. Police report that the man was a suicide bomber inspired by Islamic State extremists. After the explosion, Ullah was taken to the hospital with burns.

“I think he was prepared to die, and we see him connect the wires on the video,” a law enforcement official on the scene said.

Many commuters were in the subway lines as the bomb went off. In one video, the only thing visible is smoke filling the busy hallway and people either crouching or running away from the bomber. No one was reported dead but a few said to have had headaches and ringing in their ears after the bomb went off. Francisco Ramirez was exiting a bus when he heard two blasts, even though he was wearing headphones.

“It was two distinct explosions seconds from each other,” Ramirez said in a CNN article. “As I was making my way toward the outside, I kept getting shoved by cops and there were cops at every entrance blocking and there was police and SWAT everywhere.

It was scary. It was just a lot of chaos.”

This is the second time in two months that Blasio has found himself trying to do his best in comforting the people of New York from terrorist attacks. The last time this happened was the biggest terrorist attack since 9/11 that killed eight people.

“Our lives revolve around the subway,” Blasio said at a news conference. “The choice of New York is always for a reason, because we are a beacon to the world.

And we actually show that a society of many faiths and many backgrounds can work.”

The Times Square station is the city’s busiest and the bomb disrupted many people trying to get to work early in the morning. There was many emergency response personnel at the scene and the streets went back to their normal amount of traffic by the end of the day.