Investigators were enhancing and comparing the videos from the scene.
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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.
“We know it was a very serious incident, but we have a lot more work to do to be able to say what kind of motivation was behind this”, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio told reporters Sunday.
It was unclear who was behind the blast and what motivated it.
The governor said there’s no evidence of an global terrorism link to Saturday’s blast, which shook New York City’s Chelsea neighborhood and sent panicked people scrambling for cover.
Evidence markers scatter the street.
Police will continue to hunt for video evidence from the scene in the coming days.
Late Sunday, two senior law enforcement officials said there was a “person of interest” in the bombing, but it was unclear if that person had been identified.
Authorities said the explosion in the busy Chelsea district, not far from the landmark Flatiron Building, was intentional but with no apparent links to global terrorism, although it was still early in the investigation.
Governor Andrew Cuomo toured the area Sunday morning.
With so little known about the attack, officials said they would deploy an additional 1,000 state police and National Guard to sensitive areas such as transportation hubs.
The second device, a pressure cooker, was in a white plastic bag with tape, wiring and a cell phone or other electronic device. The NYPD tweeted that it had been safely removed to Rodman’s Neck Range in the Bronx just before 2:30 a.m. Sunday.
“The FBI has brought the evidence that they’ve collected from the site of the explosion as well as the bomb that did not detonate.to Quantico and they’ll be studying that”, the governor said.
Both leaders also said there was no evidence yet linking the NY bombs with a pipe bomb that exploded Saturday morning in a trash can in a New Jersey beach town 135 kilometers south of the city.
“I know everyone is looking to see what the cause was, could it potentially be connected to terrorism?”
The second, unexploded device was found on West 27th Street.
Law Enforcement sources have also reportedly said they found a device that appeared to be pressure cooker near the explosion site. Chris Christie said that a pipe bomb explosion before a Marine charity race in his state on Saturday morning was “clearly an act of terrorism”. No one was injured. The race was canceled after the explosives were discovered.
Street closures continued Sunday as authorities investigated at 23rd and 27th streets. Crosstown traffic was closed in both directions from West 14th Street to West 32nd Street between Fifth and Eighth avenues.
NY went on full alert, deploying almost 1,000 extra state police and National Guardsmen to airports, bus terminals and subway stations as President Barack Obama arrived in the city ahead of Tuesday’s opening of the UN General Assembly.
All trains going through Elizabeth station on both New Jersey Transit and Amtrak lines have been suspended, according to the respective transportation agencies.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk about the ongoing investigation.
Street closures remained in effect until further notice eastbound and westbound from West 14th to West 32nd streets, police said.
The search for the person or people behind the attack in NY took on added urgency as President Obama and leaders from around the world travel to NY for the UN General Assembly this week.
Police have ruled out a connection to the blast in Central Park in July that blew off a teen’s foot. The suspect was believed to be dead.
“We still don’t have anything substantive that would suggest anything more than what we know already, which is this was a lone attacker. In other words, we find no Isis connection, et cetera”, Cuomo said, referring to the Islamic State.
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The blast on 23rd Street and Sixth Avenue is believed to have come from a dumpster and was the result of “an intentional act”, according to the NYPD.
