NEW YORK police say there is no way to determine if the failed Times Square car bomb was carried out by a domestic or foreign group.
Police commissioner Ray Kelly said yesterday there was no evidence to support yesterday’s claim of responsibility by the Pakistani Taliban.
The attempted bombing took place at 6.30pm on Saturday where 45th Street and two major thoroughfares, Broadway and Seventh Avenue, intersect. The area, in the heart of the theatre district, was thronged.
US secretary of homeland security Janet Napolitano said the incident was regarded as a “potential terrorist attack”.
Mr Kelly said that a white man in his 40s had been identified on video footage of the area and was seen removing a dark shirt to reveal a red shirt about half a block from the vehicle.
A threatening phone call, first reported by the New York Times, was placed to emergency services in the early hours of Sunday morning. An unidentified caller said that the car bomb had only been a diversion and that a much bigger explosion was imminent.
The call was traced to a midtown Manhattan public phone box from which police subsequently sought fingerprints.
A street vendor had noticed smoke coming from a dark green Nissan Pathfinder vehicle, which was parked at an odd angle and still had its engine running. He alerted a mounted police officer, who began the evacuation of the area.
Three propane canisters and two five-gallon cans of petrol were found inside the car. The device also reportedly consisted of fireworks, two clocks and some wires.
The fuses to the fireworks were lit, but they did not detonate the incendiary materials as the bomber apparently intended.
A large locked metal box was also discovered in the vehicle. The box was moved to a police facility but by yesterday afternoon its contents remained unknown.
At a press briefing early yesterday, New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg said: “We are very lucky. We avoided what could have been a very deadly event.” He also acknowledged that “we have no idea who did this or why”.
The incident resulted in an evacuation of several blocks of midtown Manhattan. By the morning, however, the district had reopened. The police presence, while not oppressive, was heavier than normal, with officers taking a conspicuously close interest in parked vehicles.
Dinorah Otero, a lobby assistant at a nearby hotel, had been working as the emergency unfolded.
“It was frightening and it still is frightening, because they are going to keep doing it,” Otero said, apparently blaming terrorists. “They knew how busy it would be out here, especially on a Saturday, with lots of tourists.”
Street vendor Ron Johnson was back at work yesterday morning right beside the spot where the bomb had been discovered.
He was reluctant to speak in detail but said: “If you were here, of course you had to be concerned.” He paid tribute to the vendor who alerted the police.– (Additional reporting Reuters)
RELUCTANT HERO: VIETNAM VETERAN ALERTED POLICE
ONE OF the Times Square street sellers who alerted police has proved to be a somewhat reluctant hero.
The Vietnam veteran, Lance Orton, saw an “unoccupied suspicious vehicle” parked at an odd angle with its engine running, and alerted police. Hailed as a hero in the US media, he was unwilling to exploit his fame.
“I’m fed up,” he told a scrum of reporters after leaving the police headquarters early yesterday morning wearing a white fedora, a hooped earring and walking with a cane. “We’ve been up since 6am yesterday.” He was applauded by employees of a local restaurant, but this did not change his attitude towards the press, who he said had misquoted him in the past. – (Guardian service)