Times Sq. Suspect by U.S. Joins Search

USA Federal authorities have joined the search this suspect who planted a crude car bomb of propane. Gasoline and fireworks in a smoking Nissan Pathfinder in the heart of Times Square on Saturday evening. Thousands of tourists and theatergoers on a warm and busy night.

 

A large swath of Midtown, from 43rd Street to 48th Street, and from Sixth to Eighth Avenues, was closed for much of the evening after the Pathfinder was discovered just off Broadway on 45th Street. Several theaters and stores, as well as a portion of the Marriott Marquis Hotel, were evacuated. The streets and hotels have since reopened.

The Federal authorities said the incident appeared to be an isolated one and that there was no evidence of an ongoing threat to the city.

USA official said that the popping noises heard by a firefighter as he approached the vehicle may have been made by the fireworks failing to fully detonate.

uSA investigators were reviewing similarities between the incident in Times Square and coordinated attacks in the summer of 2007 that targeted a Glasgow airport and a neighborhood in London of nightclubs and theaters. Incidents involved cars containing propane and gasoline that did not explode. The authorities believed that their roots in Iraq.