New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Sunday there was still no indication that an explosion that injured 29 people in Manhattan on Saturday was linked to worldwide terrorism, while investigators scoured the scene of the blast.
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The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak about the ongoing investigation.
“I am concerned. We did have a bomb that was detonated on 23rd Street and we have no one apprehended-so of course I’m concerned”, O’Neill said.
New York’s governor didn’t mince words Sunday as he discussed an explosion that injured 29 people the night before in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo gave a statement on Sunday morning, specifying that the explosion had not been linked to an worldwide terror group. “We don’t know yet”, de Blasio said.
“It could have been something personally motivated”.
We still don’t know a whole lot about the explosion that occurred lastnight in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan. “No”, he said. “When you are in NY you just expect things like this to happen”. New Yorkers who endured the September 11 attacks in 2001 and devastating Superstorm Sandy in 2012 said they were generally unperturbed. All of those injured have been released from hospitals, de Blasio said.
NYPD and FBI Bomb Technicians deemed the device safe. “It felt like a building was coming down”, said the 48-year-old East Harlem resident. “There was a loud boom and then smoke and I just drove away”. 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.
An explosion in a crowded Manhattan neighborhood on Saturday night that left 29 people injured has been determined to be an “intentional act”. Instead, as the Al-Qaeda-linked magazine Inspire made clear in a 2010 article detailing how to build such explosives, these bombs were ideal weapons for individual terrorists looking to carry out isolated acts of destruction.
As authorities continue to try to unravel who planted the device and why, a law enforcement official told AP the bomb contained traces of Tannerite, an explosive often used for target practice that can be bought in sports stores.
Early Sunday, police said an investigation into a third suspicious package turned up a bag of trash.
Police have cordoned off a large area near the scene.
A law enforcement official told The Associated Press on Sunday that the Federal Bureau of Investigation is aware of the posting and was working to determine its authenticity.
Shortly after the blast, a second explosive device was found a few blocks away, placing much of NY on edge.
That second device, which was removed by a robot, reportedly resembled the devices used in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing.
The New York Times reported on Sunday that both devices were filled with “fragmentation materials”, or shrapnel, and both were “designed to create maximum chaos and fatalities”.
New York City police say they’re going to blow up the second device.
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Federal investigators in Quantico, Virginia, were examining evidence from the explosions in NY and New Jersey. Earlier on Sunday, NY governor Andrew Cuomo announced the deployment of close to 1,000 state police officers and National Guard servicemen to monitor bus terminals, airports, and subway stations.
