News

Second Explosive Device In Chelsea Found

by Emily Shire

Hours after a blast injured more than two dozen people in New York's Chelsea neighborhood, a second explosive device was found just a few blocks away, according to authorities. On Saturday night at approximately 8:30 p.m, 29 people were injured by an explosion on 23rd Street and Sixth Avenue. Some four blocks away on 27th Street between Sixth and Seventh Avenue, a second device was located in a police sweep of the area, as the Wall Street Journal noted.

A law enforcement official told the Wall Street Journal that the second device was a pressure cooker with a cell phone and wiring attached and was found inside of a plastic bag. The New York Times reported that a city official described the second device "as resembling a pressure-cooker like the one used in the Boston Marathon bombings in 2013." However, in a press conference Saturday night, Mayor Bill de Blasio stressed there was so far no link to terrorism, though he did describe the explosion as an "intentional act."

At 12:13 a.m. on Sunday, the New York Police Department released an advisory:

As a precautionary measure, we are asking residents who live on West 27th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues in Manhattan to stay away from windows facing 27th Street until we clear the area of a suspicious package. This is a precautionary measure only, we are NOT evacuating the area.

Police commissioner James P. O’Neill confirmed there was no one in custody connected to Saturday night's explosion, saying “We are still in the process of trying to figure that out."