Twenty-nine people were injured in the explosion in the Chelsea neighborhood in NY on Saturday evening.
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Surveillance footage of the explosion, including video from cameras at Orangetheory Fitness in Chelsea, captured bystanders running through the streets, ducking from debris as windows shattered all around. A law enforcement official tells The Associated Press that an explosion in the C. The New York Police Department’s counterterrorism bureau posted a photo on Twitter of a mangled dumpster.
Officers have been scouring the streets with flashlights, robots and dogs to ensure there were no other devices in the area.
Martinez, who suffered injuries to his head and leg, was feeling “pain, a little traumatized”, he said.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and other city officials said investigators had ruled out a gas leak as the cause of the blast, but they stopped short of calling it a bombing and declined to specify precisely what they believed may have triggered the explosion.
More than two dozen people were hurt in an explosion in the NY neighborhood of Chelsea Saturday night.
Remaining circumspect about the exact nature of the explosion in Chelsea, De Blasio said early indications were that it was “an intentional act”.
But, he said, “there’s no specific and credible threat against New York City at this time from any terror organization”.
Although the mayor referred to the explosion as “an intentional act”, he attempted to quell fears by stating it was unrelated to a pipe bomb explosion that occurred earlier that day at the beginning of a Seaside Park, New Jersey charity event.
Regardless, de Blasio vowed that NY “will not be intimidated” in the face of a potential threat. “We are not going to let anyone change who we are or how we go about our lives”.
Police said a sweep of the neighbourhood following the blast had turned up a possible “secondary device” four blocks away consisting of a pressure cooker with wires attached to it and connected to a mobile phone.
The blast prompted New York City police and fire department personnel to swarm the area.
The law enforcement official also said that the explosion that rocked a bustling Chelsea neighborhood appeared to have come from a construction toolbox in front of a building.
What we know: Around 8:30 p.m. Saturday an explosion occurred at 23rd Street and 6th Avenue on Manhattan’s west side.
Witnesses say Federal Bureau of Investigation and Homeland Security officials, along with the ATF arson and explosive task force are also at the scene. He says several people were taken to hospitals with injuries. However, the device did not detonate, and no one was injured.
None of the reported injuries are life-threatening, but authorities say at least one is serious.
When officers were investigating the second site, police spokesman J Peter Donald tweeted a warning to residents to stay away from windows facing 27th Street.
Obama is scheduled to travel to NY today and stay in the city for the next several days to attend the United Nations General Assembly session beginning tomorrow.
Chris Gonzalez, visiting from Dallas, was having dinner with friends at a restaurant in the area. The 26-year-old says she heard and felt a blast.
Witnesses described hearing a massive noise – “100x louder than thunder”, one witness said. “It was extremely loud, nearly like thunder, but louder”.
Injures were “significant, but none of the injured are likely to die”, said NY police commissioner James O’Neill. The suspect was believed to be dead.
Mrs Clinton issued a short statement on her campaign plane on the ground in NY, saying she had been briefed on “the bombings in NY and New Jersey”.
“Obviously, we need to do everything we can to support our first responders”.
The Republican presidential candidate provoked criticism by moving ahead of officials and declaring a “bomb went off”.
“Just before I got off the plane, a bomb went off in NY and nobody knows exactly what’s going on”, Trump said while he was on the stage.
“We’ve got to get very tough”, Trump said.
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“We have in this city the most advanced anti-terror capacity of any city in this country and obviously the largest police force of any city in the country all ready to ensure our safety”, De Blasio told reporters.
