New York:
Law enforcement officials offered a more detailed description of the makeup of the failed car bomb found in Times Square on Saturday night, and said they were reviewing surveillance footage that showed a white man who appeared to be in his 40s walking away from the area as he looked over his shoulder and removed a layer of clothing.
Raymond W Kelly, the New York City police commissioner, said on Sunday that the materials found in the Nissan Pathfinder -- gasoline, propane, firecrackers and simple alarm clocks -- also included eight bags of a granular substance, later determined to be non explosive grade of fertilizer, inside a 55-inch-tall metal gun locker.
The bomb, Kelly said, "Would have caused casualties, a significant fireball."
Had it exploded, said Paul J. Browne, the Police Department's chief spokesman, "It would have been, in all likelihood, a good possibility of people being killed, windows shattered, but not resulting in a building collapse."
While the authorities said they were treating the failed bombing -- described as a "one-off" by Janet Napolitano, the homeland security secretary -- as a potential terrorist attack, they said there was no evidence of a continued threat to the city.
Additional patrols will be placed in Midtown, Kelly said, but no significant increase in the city's police presence was planned.
Detectives and agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation had identified and were seeking to interview the owner of the Pathfinder, which was traced to Connecticut. The owner's name was not made public.
No motive had been determined in the attempted bombing, and federal and local officials said there was no evidence to support a claim of responsibility issued on Sunday by a Pakistani Taliban group that has a reputation for making far-fetched attempts to take credit for attacks.
The police and FBI officials are also investigating a separate tip received by a news organization, but Kelly said it had not turned up any suspects.
Investigators were reviewing surveillance footage that showed an unidentified man walking away from West 45th Street, where the Nissan Pathfinder had been parked. The man was seen in Shubert Alley, which runs between 44th and 45th Streets, looking furtively over his shoulder and removing a dark shirt, revealing a red one underneath, officials said. The man then stuffed the dark shirt into a bag, officials said.
Asked if he considered the failed bombing the work of terrorists, Kelly said, "A terrorist act doesn't necessarily have to be conducted by an organization. An individual can do it on their own."
Kelly held his briefing as Times Square experienced an uneasy return to normalcy after a night of high drama that saw the evacuation of thousands of tourists and theatergoers. All Broadway shows ran as scheduled on Sunday, playing on streets where, just hours before, onlookers watched behind orange netting as a police bomb squad used a robot to break into the smoke-filled Pathfinder, which was discovered about 6:30 p.m.
Two street vendors had flagged down a mounted police officer after they noticed smoke coming from the Pathfinder, which had been parked haphazardly at the curb with its engine running and its flashers on. The area was cleared so police could examine the sport utility vehicle, which was first seen on video surveillance cameras at 6:28 p.m., heading west on West 45th Street.
The Pathfinder was brought to a forensics center in Jamaica, Queens, where investigators were scouring it for DNA evidence and hairs, fibers and fingerprints. No fingerprints have yet been found, officials said, but the analysis was still in its early stages.
FBI agents and detectives from the Joint Terrorist Task Force were also trying to determine where the three canisters of propane and two red plastic five-gallon containers of gasoline in the Pathfinder had been purchased.
The gun locker, which weighed about 75 pounds empty and upward of 200 pounds with the eight bags of fertilizer in it, could provide important clues because it was likely to be more easily traced than many of the other items found in the SUV.
The weight of the locker and the material inside raised questions as to whether it might have required more than one person to load it into the vehicle.
Identifying the owner of the Pathfinder -- an important development, according to one official -- was achieved through the SUV's vehicle identification number, which had been stripped from the car's dashboard but was stamped on other car parts, like the engine block and axle.
Initially, investigators believed the last owner was in Texas and had donated the car to a charity in North Carolina, one official said. But that information proved to be incorrect.
Raymond W Kelly, the New York City police commissioner, said on Sunday that the materials found in the Nissan Pathfinder -- gasoline, propane, firecrackers and simple alarm clocks -- also included eight bags of a granular substance, later determined to be non explosive grade of fertilizer, inside a 55-inch-tall metal gun locker.
The bomb, Kelly said, "Would have caused casualties, a significant fireball."
Had it exploded, said Paul J. Browne, the Police Department's chief spokesman, "It would have been, in all likelihood, a good possibility of people being killed, windows shattered, but not resulting in a building collapse."
While the authorities said they were treating the failed bombing -- described as a "one-off" by Janet Napolitano, the homeland security secretary -- as a potential terrorist attack, they said there was no evidence of a continued threat to the city.
Additional patrols will be placed in Midtown, Kelly said, but no significant increase in the city's police presence was planned.
Detectives and agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation had identified and were seeking to interview the owner of the Pathfinder, which was traced to Connecticut. The owner's name was not made public.
No motive had been determined in the attempted bombing, and federal and local officials said there was no evidence to support a claim of responsibility issued on Sunday by a Pakistani Taliban group that has a reputation for making far-fetched attempts to take credit for attacks.
The police and FBI officials are also investigating a separate tip received by a news organization, but Kelly said it had not turned up any suspects.
Investigators were reviewing surveillance footage that showed an unidentified man walking away from West 45th Street, where the Nissan Pathfinder had been parked. The man was seen in Shubert Alley, which runs between 44th and 45th Streets, looking furtively over his shoulder and removing a dark shirt, revealing a red one underneath, officials said. The man then stuffed the dark shirt into a bag, officials said.
Asked if he considered the failed bombing the work of terrorists, Kelly said, "A terrorist act doesn't necessarily have to be conducted by an organization. An individual can do it on their own."
Kelly held his briefing as Times Square experienced an uneasy return to normalcy after a night of high drama that saw the evacuation of thousands of tourists and theatergoers. All Broadway shows ran as scheduled on Sunday, playing on streets where, just hours before, onlookers watched behind orange netting as a police bomb squad used a robot to break into the smoke-filled Pathfinder, which was discovered about 6:30 p.m.
Two street vendors had flagged down a mounted police officer after they noticed smoke coming from the Pathfinder, which had been parked haphazardly at the curb with its engine running and its flashers on. The area was cleared so police could examine the sport utility vehicle, which was first seen on video surveillance cameras at 6:28 p.m., heading west on West 45th Street.
The Pathfinder was brought to a forensics center in Jamaica, Queens, where investigators were scouring it for DNA evidence and hairs, fibers and fingerprints. No fingerprints have yet been found, officials said, but the analysis was still in its early stages.
FBI agents and detectives from the Joint Terrorist Task Force were also trying to determine where the three canisters of propane and two red plastic five-gallon containers of gasoline in the Pathfinder had been purchased.
The gun locker, which weighed about 75 pounds empty and upward of 200 pounds with the eight bags of fertilizer in it, could provide important clues because it was likely to be more easily traced than many of the other items found in the SUV.
The weight of the locker and the material inside raised questions as to whether it might have required more than one person to load it into the vehicle.
Identifying the owner of the Pathfinder -- an important development, according to one official -- was achieved through the SUV's vehicle identification number, which had been stripped from the car's dashboard but was stamped on other car parts, like the engine block and axle.
Initially, investigators believed the last owner was in Texas and had donated the car to a charity in North Carolina, one official said. But that information proved to be incorrect.
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