FBI search near Boston in Times Square bomb probe

BOSTON (Reuters) - U.S. authorities searched two locations in the Boston area in connection with the attempted bombing in Times Square on May 1, arresting two people on suspicion of immigration violations, the FBI said on Thursday.

"Two search warrants are being executed in the Boston area in relation to the Times Square bomb. They are looking for evidence related to the investigation," spokesman Richard Kolko said in New York, downplaying the significance of the immigration arrests.

He declined to comment on any link between the arrests and the investigation.

A separate FBI statement issued in Boston stressed that there was no known immediate threat to the public nor any known active plot against the United States.

Pakistani-American Faisal Shahzad has been charged with driving the crude homemade bomb into midtown Manhattan, and he was arrested aboard a Dubai-bound jetliner two days after the car bomb was found parked in Times Square.

Shahzad, 30, who was born in Pakistan and became a U.S. citizen last year, has admitted to the failed plot and to receiving bomb-making training in a Taliban and al Qaeda stronghold in Pakistan, prosecutors said.

Shahzad has told authorities he acted alone but the investigation is looking at possible links to the Pakistani Taliban and a Kashmiri Islamist group.

The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the failed bombing attempt. If proven, it would be the group's first act in the United States.

Shahzad has been charged with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction and trying to kill and maim people, as well as other counts. Shahzad is yet to appear in court as he has waived his U.S. legal rights and is talking to investigators.

Two locations being searched are a home in the suburb of Watertown and a gasoline station in the affluent suburb of Brookline.

"It is a federal investigation and we are assisting," a spokesman for the Brookline police department said.

Vincent Lacerra, who lives across the street from the searched home in Watertown, told the Boston Globe he was watching television at about 6 a.m. (1000 GMT) when he heard a commotion outside and the words, "FBI, don't move, put your hands up!"

He looked outside to see about 20 agents with guns drawn, the Globe reported on its website. "They all had their guns drawn, pointed at the house," he said.

Soon afterward, a man whose age he estimated at 25 to 40 was taken from the house and put into an Immigration and Customs Enforcement van.

"I'd never seen him before," Lacerra told the Globe. "It was quite amazing. I've never seen anything like it before. It seemed so real, so overwhelming."

(Additional reporting Daniel Trotta in New York; Writing by Daniel Trotta; Editing by Vicki Allen)