A Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) official walks amid evidence markers and a tilted garbage dumpster near the site of an explosion in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan, New York, U.S. September 18, 2016. A law enforcement official tells The Associated Press that an explosion in the Chelsea neighborhood appears to have come from a construction toolbox in front of a building.
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Multiple local and federal law enforcement officials described the pressure cooker found at 27th Street.
Simply put (and given what we know so far), the lack of forethought in Trump’s knee-jerk reaction to the Chelsea explosion this weekend, especially when compared to officials’ formal reactions to the incident, foreshadow a downright scary situation if he were to secure the presidency.
NY police, the FBI and the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives converged on the site for their first daylight view of the explosion, closing several blocks of West 23rd Street to traffic. One of the injured suffered a puncture wound that was considered serious.
“The early indications is that this was an intentional act”, the mayor said in a press briefing on the scene Saturday night.
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 FBI will study the bombs used in explosions in Seaside Park and Manhattan at its facilities in Quantico, Va., New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Sunday. “That much we do know”.
A woman who also heard the blast, but only spoke to TheDCNF on the condition of anonymity said, “I live on 24th Street and 8th Avenue and exactly at 8:30pm, [there was] a big blast”. He said a second device found blocks away from the bombing appeared “similar in design” to the first. NY officials have not said the explosion was called a bomb. Officials said 29 people were injured. The devices contained different materials and didn’t appear to be connected, officials said, but added that they weren’t ruling anything out yet. The race was cancelled and no injuries were reported.
FBI investigators will examine remnants of the bomb plus an unexploded device found four blocks away as well as a pipe bomb that exploded about 80 miles (130 km) away in New Jersey on Saturday to see if they were connected, officials said. Tannerite is a binary explosive that can be bought in kits and available for private use with little regulation. The explosion left many rattled in a city that had marked the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks only a week earlier.
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump moved ahead of New York City officials when he declared a “bomb went off” before officials had released details.
Video surfaced on social media of the explosion going off on the street, sending people running.
“It was extremely loud, nearly like thunder but louder”, said Rudy Alcide, a bouncer at a nightclub near the blast.
“I must tell you that just before I got off the plane, a bomb went off in NY and nobody knows exactly what’s going on”, Trump told a crowd at a rally in Colorado soon after the incident, which occurred at about 8:30 p.m. ET, CBS News reported.
The explosion on a commercial and residential street in New York City’s Chelsea district on Saturday night sent a deafening roar and a powerful shock wave through several blocks, wounding people with shrapnel and flying glass.
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No-one was hurt in New Jersey, and the authorities do not believe there is a link with the NY explosion.
