New York Governor Says No Apparent Link Between Blast, Overseas Terror

Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Sunday that an explosion that rocked a crowded Manhattan neighborhood, injuring 29 people, doesn’t appear to be linked to international terrorism, and he vowed that authorities would find and prosecute whoever was responsible.

He noted that 1,000 additional law enforcement officers were being deployed after the Saturday night blast in Chelsea, a primarily residential neighborhood on Manhattan’s west side that’s known for its art galleries and large gay population. He encouraged New Yorkers to go about their day as usual.

“We’re not going to let them win,” Cuomo said at the scene. “We’re not going to let them instill fear.”

The Democratic governor said the preliminary investigation didn’t appear to show a link to international terror, and he noted that no terror group had taken credit for it.

Authorities said the Manhattan blast didn’t appear to be connected to a pipe bomb explosion earlier Saturday in New Jersey that forced the cancellation of a charity run. He noted that the bombs included different materials.

A law enforcement official told The Associated Press that a second device that officers investigated four blocks from the scene appeared to be a pressure cooker attached to wiring and a cellphone. The official, who was not authorized to speak about an ongoing investigation and spoke on condition of anonymity, said the device was found inside a plastic bag on West 27th Street. The device was removed with a robot and taken to a department firing range in the Bronx.

The law enforcement official also said that the explosion appeared to have come from a construction toolbox in front of a building. Photos from the scene show a twisted and crumpled black metal box.

The blast happened on West 23rd Street, in front of a residence for the blind, near a major thoroughfare with many restaurants and a Trader Joe’s supermarket. Witnesses said the explosion at about 8:30 p.m. blew out the windows of businesses and scattered debris.

Cuomo said Sunday that all the injured who were taken to a hospital after the blast had been released. He said most had been hit with glass or debris.

Some New York City subway routes were affected by the explosion, which rattled some New Yorkers and visitors on the heels of the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks.

Chris Gonzalez, visiting from Dallas, was having dinner with friends at a restaurant in the area.

“We felt it. We heard it,” Gonzalez said. “It wasn’t like jolting or anything. Everyone just went quiet.”

Rudy Alcide, a bouncer at Vanity Nightclub at 21st Street and 6th Avenue, said he, at first, thought something large had fallen.

“It was an extremely loud noise. Everything was shaking, the windows were shaking,” he said. “It was extremely loud, almost like thunder but louder.”

The FBI and Homeland Security officials, along with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives arson and explosive task force, were at the scene. Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo toured the site Sunday.

The White House said President Barack Obama was apprised of the explosion.

Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton said the nation needs to support its first responders and “pray for the victims.”

“We have to let this investigation unfold,” she said.

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump moved ahead of New York City officials when he declared a “bomb went off” before officials had released details. He made the announcement minutes after stepping off his plane in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

“I must tell you that just before I got off the plane a bomb went off in New York and nobody knows what’s going on,” Trump said.

He continued, “But boy we are living in a time – we better get very tough, folks. We better get very, very tough. It’s a terrible thing that’s going on in our world, in our country and we are going to get tough and smart and vigilant.”

A spokeswoman for Trump didn’t respond to an email asking whether he was briefed about it before taking the stage.

The Manhattan blast came hours after a pipe bomb exploded in Seaside Park, New Jersey, shortly before thousands of runners were due to participate in a charity 5K race to benefit Marines and sailors. The run was canceled, and no injuries were reported.

Also Saturday, at least eight people were injured at a shopping mall in St. Cloud, Minnesota, in a stabbing attack. The suspect was shot dead by an off-duty police officer. The police chief said the suspect asked at least one victim if he or she was Muslim.

The investigation into the Manhattan explosion came as world leaders descend on the United Nations for a meeting Monday to address the refugee crisis and the Syrian conflict. The blast site is about 2 miles away.

According to Dr. Gordon Woo, RMS terrorism expert, since the September 11, 2001 terrorism attacks more than 20 terrorist plots in and around New York have been thwarted by city and federal intelligence and law enforcement services.

Dr. Woo said that the weekend’s incidents have implications for modeling terrorism risk.

“From what is known about the improvised explosive devices (IEDs), the cumulative death toll from these bombs might well have exceeded fifty, which is the threshold for classification as a “macroterror” attack in RMS models,” Woo explained. “A key statistic for terrorism insurers is the relative frequency of small IED plots compared to large vehicle bomb plots. The weekend’s event provides additional evidence to quantify this relative frequency and, in particular, it reflects a shift towards smaller sized IEDs.”

(Associated Press writers Jake Pearson, Ezra Kaplan and Maria Sanminiatelli in New York and Eric Tucker and Kevin Freking in Washington contributed to this report.)