NY mayor Bill de Blasio says there is “no evidence of a terror connection” and no evidence of a threat to the city after an explosion in a Manhattan dumpster.
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The blast occurred on 23rd Street, a major east-west thoroughfare in the fashionable downtown neighbourhood of Chelsea.
Law enforcement sources say police are in possession of a video that shows a man putting an object in a dumpster, followed by an explosion some time later.
“There is no evidence at this point of a terror connection”, the mayor said.
Officials later told media that a device was found at a second location a few blocks away.
Details are not clear but witnesses say the explosion happened in a rubbish skip, CBS News reports.
One of those hurt suffered a puncture wound that was considered serious.
None of the injuries are said to be life-threatening.
Early Sunday, police said they were investigating reports of a suspicious package five blocks from the blast scene. The New York Police Department Counterterrorism unit is on scene, with search dogs.
An eyewitness told CNN affiliate NY1 he was having dinner when an explosion rocked the area.
“It had to be a bomb”, said Steven Ochs, 43, who was eating paella inside a Spanish restaurant when the blast hit. The Police Department said at 1:15 a.m. that 14th Street to 32nd Street was closed to traffic between Fifth and Eighth Avenues until further notice.
“It was an extremely loud noise, everything was shaking, the windows were shaking, it was insane”, he said.
“Louder than any thunder I’ve ever heard in my life”, tweeted Liz Mandel, who posted images of the chaotic scene from a nearby building and remarked the blast left a smell of gunpowder wafting through the air.
Witnesses say Federal Bureau of Investigation and Homeland Security officials, along with the ATF arson and explosive task force are also at the scene.
NYPD Commisoner James O’Neill says there have been 29 injured as a result of the explosion.
The explosion in NY comes after an explosion in New Jersey that authorities believe was meant to disrupt a Marine Corps charity run.
In St. Cloud, Minnesota, police said multiple people were injured at a shopping mall Saturday evening in an attack that possibly involved both a shooting and stabbing. The suspect was believed to be dead.
Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton told reporters she had been in touch with NY officials.
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Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton also addressed the incident last night, saying: “Obviously we need to do everything we can to support our first responders, also to pray for the victims. A full investigation is under way”, he said. Trump made the claim though NY officials have yet to confirm the details of the incident.
