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Car bombing foiled in New York's Times Square
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Car bombing foiled in New York's Times Square
AFP - 48 minutes ago
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Police seal off Times Square on May 1. Investigators raced to find who attempted to detonate an "amateurish" but potentially deadly car bomb in New York's Times Square, combing through a wealth of clues from fingerprints to surveillance video.
NEW YORK (AFP) - – Investigators raced Sunday to find who attempted to detonate an "amateurish" but potentially deadly car bomb in New York's Times Square, combing through a wealth of clues from fingerprints to surveillance video.
Thanks to a T-shirt vendor and Vietnam War veteran who saw smoke coming from the explosives laden vehicle, police were able to foil a fiery explosion in the city's Broadway theater district that could have been devastating on a crowded Saturday night.
"We are very lucky... (to) avoid what could have been a very deadly event," Mayor Michael Bloomberg told an impromptu press conference early Sunday.
Bomb squad officers discovered propane gas tanks, fireworks and timing devices loaded into the back of the sports utility vehicle after the T-shirt seller alerted authorities around 6:30 pm (2230 GMT) on Saturday.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said the FBI, the New York police and the government's Terrorism Task Force were probing the "potential terrorist attack," poring over the vehicle and surveillance camera video for leads.
Asked whether fingerprints had been taken that could be helpful, Napolitano told CNN, "There is all that -- forensics about the vehicle, about the tanks, the propane inside.
"There are forensics in terms of video or possible video that might exist. There is a lot of evidence being tracked down by a lot of people right now."
So far there was no evidence of a broader plot, but law enforcement authorities had been alerted to "stay on their toes," she said.
"Right now we have no other information other than it is a one-off," Napolitano said in a separate interview with ABC television's "This Week."
Bloomberg said the bomb was homemade and "looked amateurish" but "certainly could have exploded."
The device consisted of three propane tanks, consumer-grade fireworks, two gasoline containers, wires and two clocks, New York Police Department (NYPD) Commissioner Raymond Kelly said.
Police began "observing white smoke inside and coming out of the rear of the vehicle," and then "began to clear pedestrians," Kelly said. Related article: NY governor says failed car bomb was terrorism
He said the vehicle, believed to be a green Nissan, had license plates belonging to a different vehicle and had been caught on videotape driving in the area just before the incident.
Police were checking other cameras that may have captured the vehicle, and "more important, people seen driving or leaving the vehicle," he said.
"We do not know who drove the car," Bloomberg said. "We have no idea who did this or why."
Governor David Patterson said New Yorkers owed a debt of gratitude to the police and the vigilant T-shirt vendor, who told police officer Wayne Rhatigan he became concerned after seeing smoke coming out from the Nissan SUV.
"I did a lap around the vehicle. The inside was smoking," Rhatigan later told the New York Daily News. "I smelled gunpowder and knew it might blow. I thought it might blow any second."
Times Square, one of the busiest areas of New York, was locked down for hours before being reopened as security forces entered a huge manhunt for the driver of the dark green Nissan Pathfinder.
The bomb scare raised tensions across the United States where security forces have been on edge since a Christmas Day alleged attempt by a Nigerian man to set off a bomb on a US airliner.
The White House said President Barack Obama had been briefed on the incident and "commended the quick action by the NYPD," White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said.
John Brennan, the president's deputy national security adviser, is working with the NYPD and others and will continue to keep the president up to date on the investigation, the White House said.
New York City police are on constant alert after a string of terrorist plots and alleged plots in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks. Chrono: US attack plots since 9/11
In December they closed Times Square while inspecting a van at first feared to contain a bomb, but which turned out to be carrying nothing dangerous.
In February, Afghan immigrant and self-confessed Al-Qaeda agent Najibullah Zazi, 25, pleaded guilty to a plot to set off bombs in New York's subway system. He could be sentenced to life in prison.
Last year, four New Yorkers went on trial in an alleged plot to bomb a synagogue in the city and shoot down military planes.
Nearly 3,000 people died in the 9/11 attacks when airliners hijacked by Islamist suicide squads slammed into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in Manhattan, demolishing both sky scrapers.
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