A law enforcement official told The Associated Press that the explosion appears to have come from a construction toolbox in front of a building on West 23rd Street. A vehicle seen driving through the area had its rear window blown out. Information about the source of the explosion hasn’t been confirmed.
Advertisement
Police also found three unexploded pipe bombs bound together near the scene on the boardwalk in Seaside.
“It was a loud boom, a deep boom”, an eyewitness who was eating dinner nearby when the blast occurred said. I knew something was wrong, people ran from 23rd street and I ran with them.
“As of this time, the exact cause of this explosion has not been determined”, Commissioner O’Neill said. The explosion was captured on video, he said. “Went downstairs to see what happened and firemen immediately told us to go back”. No arrests have been made, he said.
The NYPD Bomb Squad and the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force were requested to respond.
The exploding dumpster was located between 6th and 7th Avenues on 23rd Street, nearer to 6th Avenue.
The blast shattered windows in a five-story brownstone building and rained broken glass onto the street, a policeman said.
Manhattan is one of the five boroughs that make up New York City, and is known to be the most densely populated among the five, meaning any untoward occurrence there would maximise the damage because of the population density.
Law enforcement was responding to an explosion in Chelsea that occurred around 9 p.m., but the earliest reports did not specify a cause. Firefighters, police officers and other first responders flooded to the spot.
Bellevue Hospital said it was treating nine patients from the explosion, all of whom are stable. No one was hurt. That includes investigating if an incendiary device was planted to cause the blast, a senior official familiar with the investigation told WNBC, our NBC station in NY.
Police work at the scene of an explosion in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood, in New York, Saturday, Sept. 17, 2016. “It sounded like a war, it was bad”, she said.
Donald Trump moved ahead of New York City officials when he declared a “bomb went off” in the city before officials had released details. “We better get very tough, folks”, Trump said.
Advertisement
The blast is believed to have taken place on 23rd and 6th Avenue in the Chelsea neighbourhood of Manhattan, a bustling district on NY. NY officials have not said the explosion was called a bomb.
