Eleven hours later on West 23rd Street the bomb went off in NY, sparking panic and chaos on the streets on a warm late summer night in the busy Chelsea neighbourhood.
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New York Governor Andrew Cuomo called the blast an “act of terrorism”, but said there was no evidence of “international terrorism”.
Law enforcement sources identify this pressure cooker, with wires and a phone attached, as the device found on 27th St.in Manhattan following an explosion on 23rd St. on September 17, 2016. Two pressure cookers had been used in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing that killed three people and injured more than 260. He said the second device appeared “similar in design” to the first, but did not provide details.
An additional 1,000 state troopers and members of the National Guard were placed at transit hubs and other points throughout New York City and extra police officials were patrolling Manhattan, officials said.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said then that it was “too early to determine specifically what the incident was caused by” and that the investigation was still underway.
The homemade pressure cooker bomb which exploded in the Chelsea district of Manhatten on Saturday night and another one which did not go off were packed with “fragmentation materials” created to kill as many people as possible, officials said.
No-one has been charged with any crime and the investigation is continuing.
“In other words, we find no ISIS connection, etcetera”, said Cuomo in reference to IS, which is based in Iraq and Syria.
A pipe bomb explosion in Seaside Park, New Jersey, before a charity 5K race to benefit Marines and sailors earlier Saturday didn’t appear to be connected to the Manhattan bombing, and each bomb contained different materials, officials said, but added that they weren’t ruling anything out yet. The city’s fire department said none of the victims had life-threatening injuries, but witnesses reported seeing victims cut by shrapnel, metal fragments and glass. One received a puncture wound described as serious, while the rest suffered scrapes and bruises.
An unexploded second device, a pressure cooker wired to a mobile phone, was found just a few blocks away from the scene of the first blast.
The explosion, described by one person as “deafening”, happened outside the Associated Blind Housing facility at 135 West 23rd Street.
Police officers and federal agents searched the streets with flashlights, robots and dogs early Sunday to ensure there were no other devices in the area.
Hillary Clinton, his Democratic rival, said it was important to know the facts before making judgments. In Chicago, police are being told to stay vigilant, but Superintendent Eddie Johnson said there is no threat to Chicago at this time.
Apir Chaudhury, a sales associate working on a night shift at a 7-11 convenience store on 5th avenue, said that he didn’t hear the explosion, but around 9 p.m., police closed up the roads and started to check everything.
Ramon Lopez was at West 23rd and Sixth Avenue when the explosion happened.
There was no claim for the bombings in Manhattan or New Jersey, but a jihadist-linked news agency, Amaq, claimed that an IS “soldier” carried out the Minnesota stabbings. No one was hurt and De Blasio and Cuomo have said there is no evidence linking the two incidents.
New York Police Commissioner James O’Neill said the bomb appeared to have components of an improvised explosive device, which shattered windows and sent shockwaves through the surrounding streets of Manhattan Saturday.
“No individual or group has claimed responsibility”, O’Neill said.
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“Now, I want to be clear whatever the cause, whatever the intention here, New Yorkers will not be intimidated”, the mayor said.
