Austin bombings: suspect Mark Anthony Conditt blows himself up

The man suspected of carrying out a spate of deadly bombings in Texas has killed himself, police have confirmed.

Mark Anthony Conditt, 23, detonated an explosive device in his car as a SWAT team approached the vehicle in the city of Round Rock, north of Austin - where most of the attacks occurred.

One officer sustained minor injuries in the blast and another is reported to have fired his weapon.

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“The suspect is deceased and has significant injuries from a blast that occurred from detonating a bomb inside his vehicle,” Austin Police Chief Brian Manley told reporters.

Authorities do not know whether Conditt acted alone, and residents have been told to remain vigilant, CNN reports.

The motive for the attacks is also still unclear. “We will have to determine if we see a specific ideology behind this,” Manley said.

Conditt was initially identified by security footage from a FedEx store where a bomb had been shipped, an official told local newspaper the Austin American-Statesman.

He has been linked to five bombings this month that have killed two people and injured several others.

In the first three attacks, parcels containing explosions were left on doorsteps in Austin. On Sunday, two cyclists were hurt in a blast apparently set off by a tripwire across a path in a residential area of the city. A package then detonated at a FedEx Corp facilities in the nearby city of Schertz on Tuesday, Reuters says.

Today President Donald Trump, who called the bomber “a very sick individual”, tweeted his congratulations to law enforcement officers on a “great job”.