Earlier Saturday morning, about 80 miles away, an explosion went off inside a trash can at a military charity run in Seaside Park, New Jersey.
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However, authorities said the Manhattan blast didn’t appear to be connected to the Seaside Park pipe bomb explosion.
The race has since been canceled.
Porrino and Colonel Rick Fuentes, Superintendent of the New Jersey State Police, have briefed the governor on the incident and the investigation into the blast.
Mr Fave issued a warning on Facebook which said: “At this time the area is on lock down while bomb dogs search for additional devices”. The public was being urged to avoid the area.
The Shore area has been on alert following the incident and prompted evacuations of residences in the area where the incident occurred.
Della Fave said preliminary investigators had described the device as a “pipe bomb-type device”.
New Jersey State Police said later in the day that bomb technicians “rendered safe” items located in a plastic trash can where the explosion occurred; they did not specify what those items were or provide further details.
“You don’t want to jump to conclusions and you don’t want to put information out there that you don’t know is absolutely true”, Christie said, calling them terrorist attacks.
Officials say the device was timed to detonate during the race which had been delayed while a suspicious rucksack was investigated.
The level of sophistication of the device is not known at this time, however, Della Fave said the way in which the device was detonated will reveal a lot about its complexity.
No one was injured in the blast.
Authorities said the lag in the start of the race, reportedly because of late registrations, meant the bomb went off before runners were on the race course.
The explosion occurred at 9:35 a.m., five minutes after the race had been scheduled to begin.
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“We’re working together to conduct a thorough investigation to find out who is responsible at this time”, he said, adding that the investigators are “conducting interviews, securing evidence, and making sure there’s no stone left unturned”. But before the race was supposed to get off, the discovery of a backpack near a media tent sent off an announcement over a bullhorn, Howath said. The race, after the initial delay, was canceled and residents were told to take cover.
