[unitedstatesaction.com news] NYC police defuse car bomb in Times Square

NYC police defuse car bomb in Times Square

http://www.unitedstatesaction.com/newslinks/nyc-times-square-car-bomb.html




Reuters:

-- "Police have 'rendered safe' a car bomb found inside a sport utility
vehicle
that triggered the evacuation of New York's Times Square on Saturday
night in an
incident that the city's mayor said early on Sunday could have turned
into a
very deadly event."

-- "New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg also told a news conference that
'we have
no idea who did this and why.' He said the bomb appeared to have been
made in an
amateurish manner."

-- "'We are very lucky. Thanks to alert New Yorkers and professional
police
officers, we avoided what could have been a very deadly event,'
Bloomberg said."

-- "He said an alert T-shirt vendor noticed 'an unoccupied suspicious
vehicle'
and alerted a mounted New York police officer, who observed that the SUV
had
smoke emerging from vents near the back seat and smelled of gun powder."

-- "'The NYPD bomb squad has rendered safe an improvised car bomb,' said
New
York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly."

Image of NYC Bomb Squad in Times Square (WCBS-TV)

NY Post:

Car bomb causes terror scare, forces evacuation in Times Square

-- "A car bomb nearly caused a bloodbath in the heart of Times Square
yesterday
as a homemade explosive device in an SUV parked outside the doors of
"The Lion
King" fizzled out."

-- "The bomb caused a terror scare that forced thousands of people to
evacuate
the Crossroads of the World and turn Times Square into a ghost town for
hours."

-- "An unidentified T-shirt vendor, who is a Vietnam veteran, saw smoke
billowing from a Nissan Pathfinder and alerted Police Officer Wayne
Rhatigan, a
mounted patrol cop, who looked inside the smoldering vehicle at around
6:30 p.m.
on West 45th Street near Seventh Avenue in front of an entrance to the
Minskoff
Theatre, which houses the hugely popular Disney musical, Mayor Bloomberg
said
early this morning."






NY Daily News:

3 cops, street vendor stop Times Square car bomb from detonating; Gas,
clock
found inside car

-- "What they found was stunning: a running SUV packed with three
propane tanks,
two red 5-gallon plastic jugs of gasoline, a clock, electrical
components and a
canister of gunpowder, police sources said."

NY

Times

Police Find Car Bomb in Times Square

-- "Bomb squad officers also discovered a two-by-two-by-four-foot metal
box --
described as a 'gun locker' -- in the S.U.V. that was taken to the
Police
Department’s firing range at Rodman's Neck in the Bronx to be destroyed,
Mr.
Kelly said. It was not immediately known what, if anything, was inside
it."

-- "Officials said they had no reports of anyone seen running from the
vehicle.
Mr. Kelly said police were scouring the area for any additional
videotapes but
noted that the S.U.V.'s windows were tinted, which could further hamper
any
efforts to identify those inside. Some of the surveillance cameras
nearby were
located in closed businesses, and the mayor made clear it would take
time to
review all available tapes."






NY1 News:

Police Defuse Car Bomb In Times Square

-- "The search is now on to determine who planted the device and why."

-- "Bloomberg, speaking to reporters one block away from where the
vehicle was
discovered, warned of the dangers of terrorism – but did not
specifically
characterize the incident as an intended international terror attack."

-- "There is no word whether the device's timers had been activated to
detonate
the explosive materials, or how much time, if any, was left on them."

-- "Following the discovery of the device, police shut down a portion of
Times
Square and evacuated 45th Street between Seventh and Eighth avenues.
Authorities
also evacuated a portion of the Marriott Marquis Hotel at Broadway and
46th
Street and the Westin at 43rd and Eight Avenue, and patrons were
escorted out of
several Broadway theaters and restaurants."

Witnesses in the area reported hearing a loud bang emanating from the
vehicle at
around that time, but it appears there was no sizeable explosion.

-- "A police spokesman said later that the device 'appeared it was in
the
process of detonating, but it malfunctioned.'"

-- "Once the area was cleared, authorities used a remote-controlled
robotic
vehicle to neutralize the device and then begin the process of
dismantling it."

-- "Once the situation was stabilized sometime after midnight, the robot
was
withdrawn and specially-protected members of the bomb squad worked to
remove the
remaining material from the vehicle by hand."

-- "Police also recovered a black metal box resembling a gun locker."

-- "According to the NYPD, the vehicle's VIN number had been removed and
the
car's license plate did not match its registration. Officials said an
investigation was underway to determine who abandoned the vehicle and
why."






NY CBS 2

Suspected Car Bomb Found In Times Square

-- video



1010
WINS


-- "Katy Neubauer, 46, and Becca Saunders, 39, of Milwaukee, were
shopping for
souvenirs two blocks south of the SUV when they saw panicked crowds."

-- "'It was a mass of people running away from the scene,' Neubauer
said."

-- "Said Saunders: 'There were too many people, too many cops. I've
never seen
anything like it.'"






WPIX News:

Bomb Squad Investigates SUV Packing Explosives In Times Square

-- "Investigators removed three propane tanks, fireworks, two filled
5-gallon
gasoline containers, and two clocks with batteries, electrical wire and
other
components from the back of the Nissan Pathfinder, Police Commissioner
Raymond
Kelly said. A black metal box resembling a gun locker was also recovered
and
will be detonated off site, he said."

-- "Bloomberg called the explosive device "amateurish" and Kelly said
the
explosives were consumer-grade fireworks but could have caused huge
damage on a
block of Broadway theaters and restaurants teeming with tourists."

-- "'I think the intent was to cause a significant ball of fire,' Kelly
said."

-- "A Connecticut license plate on the vehicle did not match up,
Bloomberg said.
Police interviewed the Connecticut car owner, who told police he had
sent the
plates to a nearby junkyard, Bloomberg said."

__._,_.___

If reposting elsewhere, please credit source of this research as UnitedStatesAction.com

__,_._,___