Manhattan Blast That Injured 29 Does Not Appear to Be International Terrorism
The authorities believe a homemade bomb caused the explosion in the Chelsea neighborhood about 8:30 p.m. Saturday, injuring 29. A second device was later found four blocks away.
Photo by Rashid Umar Abbasi/Reuters. Times Video
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said that a powerful explosion that rocked the Chelsea neighborhood in Manhattan on Saturday night, injuring 29 people, did not appear to be linked to international terrorism, but that it was a powerful bomb designed to kill.
“This is one of the nightmare scenarios,” he said at a news conference on Sunday. “We really were very lucky that there were no fatalities.”
Even as the last of the victims was released from the hospital, the police, joined by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, mounted a large-scale hunt for the person or people behind the attack. Officials said they did not know of any motive — political or social — but were hoping that clues from surveillance videos, eyewitnesses and the bomb itself would provide critical clues.
As terrifying and destructive as the bombing was, it could have been worse, law enforcement officials said. Four blocks away, the authorities found and removed what they described as a second device. Mr. Cuomo said the devices appeared to be similar in design and one federal law enforcement official who agreed to speak about the continuing investigation only on condition of anonymity described it as a “viable device” that failed to detonate.
The authorities were also looking into whether the New York explosion was connected to a blast that happened 11 hours earlier when an improvised device exploded in a garbage can near the course of a charity race that was about to start in a small town on the Jersey Shore. That device went off around 9:30 a.m. near the boardwalk in Seaside Park, N.J., according to the Ocean County sheriff, Michael G. Mastronardy. No one was injured. The race, the Seaside Semper Five, a five-kilometer run and charity event along the waterfront that raises money for members of the United States Marine Corps and their families, was canceled.
Officials declined to comment on why they seemed confident in ruling out a link to an international terrorist group but they noted that there had been no claim of responsibility from any terror network. In contrast, the Islamic State was quick on Sunday to claim a stabbing attack Saturday night at a Minnesota shopping mall that left nine people injured.