Hours after an explosion injured 29 people in a Manhattan neighborhood, police were scouring the area for evidence Sunday as they tried to pinpoint exactly what – and who – caused the blast.
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The blast comes after a pipe bomb explosion in neighbouring New Jersey earlier on Saturday along the route of a planned charity race.
A bomb that tore through an upscale NY neighborhood injuring 29 people was an act of terror, the state governor said Sunday, but the motive is unknown and there has been no claim of responsibility.
An extra 1,000 state police and National Guard will deploy to airports, bus terminals and subway stations to reassure New Yorkers returning to work, he said. “We will find whoever did this or whatever group did this and they will be brought to justice, period”, Cuomo stated.
However, New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo has described detonating a bomb in New York City as “obviously an act of terrorism”.
By Sunday morning, all 29 people injured in the Chelsea explosion had been released from the hospital.
“DEAFENING” EXPLOSION At least three people were seen being taken away from the scene of the Chelsea blast in ambulances, but the severity of their injuries was not immediately clear.
The New York Police Department tweeted early Sunday that the device has been safely removed from West 27th Street by the bomb squad.
New York Congressman Peter King said the fact that officials had not yet determined a known terrorist link was not necessarily conclusive. “The fact there is no evidence right now doesn’t mean much”, he added.
“There is no evidence at this point of a terror connection”, de Blasio said.
Late Sunday, two senior law enforcement officials said they had identified a “person of interest” in the bombing, though they did not refer to that person as a suspect. It was caused by a homemade device.
O’Neill said officers are investigating the possible second explosive device on 27th Street between Sixth and Seventh avenues.
Authorities have cordoned off the street where the explosion occurred, in the Chelsea neighborhood south of Midtown in eastern Manhattan. “I’ll have more to say about it when we actually know some facts”.
The explosion was in the busy Chelsea neighbourhood of Manhattan on Saturday evening, and an unexploded pressure-cooker device was found four blocks away. “I think they do a disservice to the public when they try to sugar coat something that is a horrific act”.
The second device – a pressure cooker connected to a mobile phone with wires attached – had been placed in a plastic bag inside a bin.
The explosion shook the bustling neighborhood Saturday night in what police are calling “an act of terrorism”.
Authorities found “components indicative of an IED”, at the West 23rd site, O’Neill said during a news conference Sunday afternoon. The devices contained different materials and didn’t appear to be connected, officials said, but added that they weren’t ruling anything out yet.
He said that while there was no evidence of an worldwide terror link “at this time”, it was still “very early in the investigation”.
Another witness, Denise Coles, said the bomb went off as she was pulling into a parking place.
“They want to make you worry about going into New York City or New York State”. One bomb in New Jersey was detonated inside of a trash can; however, no one was injured during the explosion.
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Reports said the five were detained together in a auto that was stopped on a highway in New York’s Brooklyn borough and were taken to an Federal Bureau of Investigation building in Manhattan for questioning.
