Twenty-nine people were injured in the NY explosion, one of them critically, officials say.
Advertisement
“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.
O’Neill wouldn’t say if the device was an actual bomb, saying the bomb squad is still investigating.
The suspicious device, recovered at 27th St. and 7th Ave., was a pressure cooker sealed with duct tape with a cable extending from it connected to a cell phone.
The explosion on West 23rd Street between Sixth and Seventh Avenues in Chelsea was reported at around 8:30 p.m.
The official says in the NY incident, the device that exploded had residue from an explosive called Tannerite.
Authorities have cordoned off the street where the explosion occurred, in the Chelsea neighborhood south of Midtown in eastern Manhattan.
Street closures in New York City as of noon Sunday, Sept. 18, 2016.
Multiple local and federal law enforcement officials described the pressure cooker found at 27th Street. The governor also announced the deployment of an additional 1,000 state police and national guardsmen to New York City.
Speaking at a press conference in the neighborhood, de Blasio also said the injuries were significant – cuts and burns – but that none were life-threatening.
Update 11:00am: Governor Andrew Cuomo has come out and called the incident terrorism, but no connections to “international terrorism” at this point.
De Blasio told reporters early Sunday morning that there did not appear to be a link between the incidents in NY and New Jersey.
Investigators want to determine how it was made and whether it is similar to the device that caused the first blast.
The FBI was taking evidence from all three sites to its special crime laboratory in Quantico, Virginia, he said, adding that he had been briefed by “all the relevant agencies”. “We better get very, very tough”, Trump said at a campaign rally. Officials said 29 people were injured. On Sunday morning, he tweeted a message of support to those who were injured in the explosion. “This is freedom. This is democracy, and we’re not going to allow them to take that from us”. “I saw pieces of metal – not large, but not small either”.
Witnesses described hearing a deafening blast, and surveillance video footage captured images of nearby windows being blown out by the explosion as people sprinted away from the scene.
“I was driving a auto and next thing you know I felt an explosion”, he said.
Among the injured were David Martinez and Brenda Abero, who spoke to CNN after they were discharged from New York’s Bellevue Hospital.
Advertisement
Federal investigators in Quantico, Virginia, are examining evidence from Saturday’s explosions in New Jersey and NY.
