A second device was later found inside a plastic bag blocks away, and it appeared to be a pressure cooker with wiring and a cellphone attached to it. Mayor to NYers: “Be vigilant”.
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As investigators watched for clues, local officers and federal agents shined flashlights and guide dogs through the streets in hopes of finding out further information about the explosion.
The explosion on a commercial and residential street in New York City’s Chelsea district on Saturday night sent a deafening roar and a powerful shock wave through several blocks, wounding people with shrapnel and flying glass.
The bombing has been called a terrorist act by officials who say that so far there is no evidence of a connection to global terrorism.
On Sunday afternoon, De Blasio and other city officials stressed that the investigation was in early stages and while investigators could determine the blast was “criminal” and “intentional”, they hadn’t nailed down a suspect or a motive.
De Blasio said: “We know there was a bombing. I think it becomes a question of semantics, if anything”, Cuomo said. The illusion that more guns, more cameras, more screeners, more force, makes us substantially safer from a terrorist attack is one that no politician is willing to confront, even if New Yorkers themselves know better.
Cuomo ordered 1,000 New York State police and National Guardsmen across the city.
Pressed to respond to the governor’s comments, de Blasio said, “Let’s let the law enforcement experts draw the conclusions”.
(AP Photo/Nico Maounis). A police officer escorts an injured man away from the scene of a possible explosion on West 23rd Street in NY. Investigators are now scouring those tapes in hopes of tracking down the person who planted the device, NYPD said.
(AP Photo/Andres Kudacki). Mayor Bill de Blasio, center, and NYPD Chief of Department James O’Neill, center right, speak during a press conference near the scene of an apparent explosion on West 23rd street in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood, in New Y. The New York Police Department’s counterterrorism bureau posted a photo on Twitter of a mangled dumpster.
The official says investigators looked into it and don’t consider it relevant to the case. “We’re lucky that only 29 were injured”, Cuomo said on MSNBC Sunday. The White House said President Barack Obama was apprised of the explosion. “All hands are on deck, there is no evidence of a terrorist incident”, he said.
“At this point we do not have any specific evidence of a connection but that will continue to be considered”. Cuomo said the NY explosion did not appear to have links to global terror. “We are not going to let anyone change who we are or how we go about our lives”. They want to instil terror. “[The explosion] anxious them, for sure, but they also said it was not going to change anything they were going to do today”.
On one hand, the mayor’s decision could be seen as a way of contrasting himself with fear-mongering bigots like Donald Trump, who told a crowd in Colorado that a “bomb went off in New York” before any public officials had confirmed the cause of the explosion, and used it as an opportunity to explain why “we’ve got to get very tough”.
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New York City subway routes were affected by the explosion, which rattled some New Yorkers and visitors on the heels of the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks.
