Twenty-nine people were injured after a bomb exploded at 23rd street in Chelsea after 8.30pm eastern. All 29 were treated and released from hospitals by Sunday.“We did find some components indicative of an IED,” NYPD commissioner James O’Neill said. But no individual or group has claimed responsibility, he said.
Police found a second device, a pressure cooker wired to a mobile phone and placed in a plastic bag, a few block away on 27th street. Chief of detectives Robert Boyle said the examination of that device has not concluded.
Mayor Bill de Blasio called the bombing an “intentional” act but declined to call it terrorism before police had any tangible notion of motive. O’Neill echoed those comments, saying if the act was terrorism police will “come out and say it”.
But Governor Andrew Cuomo described the bombing as terrorism regardless of its ultimate motive or perpetrator. “There is no link at this time at this preliminary stage to international terrorism,” he said, adding that police will consider any motive, terroristic, political or personal. “Whoever placed these bombs, we will find and they will be brought to justice.”