Explosion rocks New York commuter hub
NEW YORK: An explosion rocked New York’s Port Authority Bus Terminal, one of the city’s busiest commuter hubs, yesterday morning and police said one suspect was injured and in custody, with three other injuries reported.
Police were not yet identifying the device used. Local television channel WABC cited police sources as saying a possible pipe bomb detonated in a passageway below ground and WPIX cited sources as saying a man with a “possible second device” has been detained in the subway tunnel.
The fire department tweeted there were four injuries, all non-life threatening. One of the injured was a Port Authority police officer.
The bus terminal was temporarily closed, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said in a Twitter statement.
A large swathe of midtown Manhattan was closed to traffic, from 45th Street to 40th Street and 7th Avenue to 9th Avenue, police said.
Subway trains were bypassing the Times Square station, the city’s busiest.
“There was a stampede up the stairs to get out,” said Diego Fernandez, one of the commuters at Port Authority.
“Everybody was scared and running and shouting.”
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and President Donald Trump have been briefed on the incident. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo was on the scene.
WABC reported the suspect was in his 20s and was from Bangladesh, and that he has been in the US for seven years and has an address in s Brooklyn.
First reports of the incident began soon after 7am local time, at the start of the city’s rush hour. New York in December sees a surge of visitors who come to see elaborate store displays, the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree and Broadway shows.
News of the incident jarred financial markets as trading was getting under way for the week. Standard & Poor’s 500 index E-mini futures pared gains, the dollar weakened against the yen and US Treasury securities prices gained on a modest flight-to-safety bid.
The incident occurred less than two months after an Uzbek immigrant killed eight people by driving a rented truck down a New York City bike path. Islamic State claimed responsibility.
In September 2016, a man injured more than two dozen people when he set off a home-made bomb in New York’s Chelsea district.