Tag Archives: New York City

Hundreds of cats quarantined in New York City bird flu outbreak

By Gina Cherelus

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Hundreds of domestic cats have been quarantined in New York City after contracting a strain of highly contagious avian flu at shelters operated by a major animal rescue organization, and the virus also infected at least one veterinarian, officials said.

It is the first time the H7N2 strain of the virus, commonly found in birds, has infected domestic cats, according to the New York City Health Department.

Symptoms are generally mild, and include sneezing, coughing and runny eyes and noses.

The virus was first detected last month in 45 cats housed at a Manhattan shelter run by Animal Care Center of NYC, and later turned up in cats at shelters in the boroughs of Queens and Brooklyn. It was not immediately clear how the cats contracted the virus or how it spread so quickly, the city’s health department said in a statement on Thursday.

“We continue to urge New Yorkers who have adopted cats from ACC shelters to be on alert for symptoms in their pets and take proper precautions,” Health Commissioner Mary Bassett said in a statement.

She said the risk to human health from H7N2 is low.

H7N2 is a type of avian influenza virus, also known as the bird flu, that can mutate and transfer onto mammals such as cats. It could infect other mammals as well, including humans, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) website. The CDC provides guidance on bird flu in cats on its website. (https://www.cdc.gov/flu/spotlights/avian-influenza-cats.htm)

More than 450 cats will remain at a temporary shelter for up to 90 days until a University of Wisconsin lab confirms they are no longer contagious, the city’s health department said. ACC, the New York Health Department and the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals are monitoring the animals together.

In December, the city’s health department and the CDC confirmed that a veterinarian had been infected at the ACC’s Manhattan shelter. It was the first case of cat-to-human-transmission of the flu, the city’s health department said. The illness was mild and short-lived.

The health department screened more than 160 ACC employees for the virus and contacted more than 80 percent of pet adopters from the Manhattan shelter, but no other cases have been found.

Residents who adopted a cat from an ACC shelter between Nov. 12 and Dec. 15 should monitor their pets for signs of sickness, officials said.

(Editing by Frank McGurty and Matthew Lewis)

New York train crash injures more than 100 commuters

Emergency Vehicles gathered around train crash in NYC

By Jonathan Oatis

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A New York City train derailed at a downtown Brooklyn terminal during Wednesday’s morning rush hour, injuring more than 100 commuters in the metropolitan area’s second major rail accident since late September.

Emergency crews swarmed Atlantic Terminal after the Long Island Rail Road train went off the tracks inside the busy transportation hub at 8:20 a.m. local time, the New York City Fire Department said.

While none of the injuries were life-threatening, at least 11 people were sent to the hospital, Deputy Assistant Chief Dan Donoghue said at a briefing at the crash site. Between 600 and 700 people were on the train, he said.

The train, arriving from the Queens neighborhood of Far Rockaway, failed to stop on time. Traveling at a fairly slow speed, it derailed after striking a bumping block, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said at the briefing.

About 103 people were injured, the fire department said in a Twitter message. The front two cars of the six-carriage train were severely damaged. The station’s partitions and bumping block, which prevents railway vehicles from going past the end of a section of track, were also damaged.

Passengers said the blood and chaos following the derailment was frightening.

“There were people crying,” said Aaron Neufeld, a 26-year-old paralegal who commutes on the rail line daily. “I saw some bloody faces.”

Neufeld, who was riding in the second car, said the train appeared to be approaching normally until it crashed, knocking passengers on top of one another and shattering glass windows.

“Bags went flying,” he said. “People were thrown to the ground.”

The engineer was probably responsible for failing to stop the train before it hit the bumper, said Tom Prendergast, chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the agency that runs the railroad.

The train was traveling between 10 and 15 miles per hour as it approached the bumper, he said, which is standard.

“At that speed, it’s pretty much the locomotive engineer’s responsibility to stop the train,” Prendergast said as he stood beside Cuomo at the briefing. Investigators will interview the engineer, the conductor and brakeman to determine the cause of the accident, he said.

There were no major service disruptions for other Long Island Rail Road lines at the terminal, an MTA official said.

Earlier, officials said crews were working to restore service at the terminal by the evening rush hour.

In late September, a New Jersey Transit train crashed into a terminal in Hoboken, New Jersey, killing one woman and injuring 114 people, including the engineer.

Cuomo, who has made infrastructure improvements a centerpiece of his agenda, said Wednesday’s incident was minor in comparison. The most serious injury in the crash was a broken leg, he said.

“There was extensive damage in Hoboken,” Cuomo said. “That train was coming in much faster, did much more damage.”

The U.S. Federal Railroad Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board said they were sending investigators to the scene.

The Long Island Rail Road is the United State’s largest commuter rail system, serving more than 330,000 passengers a day, according to the American Public Transportation Association.

Atlantic Terminal, which also connects commuters to nine city subway lines, is one of the busiest New York stations.

(Additional reporting by Gina Cherelus, David Shepardson and David Ingram; Writing by Laila Kearney; Editing by Frank McGurty and Lisa Von Ahn)

New York City crime fell to historic low in 2016

New York City Buildings

By David Ingram

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Crime in New York City fell to a historic low last year, the police said on Wednesday in a report showing that the largest U.S. city avoided the spike in murders that has battered other major American cities, including Chicago.

Overall, there were 101,606 crimes that police said they knew about during 2016, down 4 percent from 2015, police said.

There were 335 murders reported last year, down 5 percent from the 352 murders a year earlier, police said. The record for the fewest since the city started keeping reliable numbers in 1963 was 328 murders in 2014.

By way of comparison, Chicago, which has about one-third as many residents as New York’s 8.6 million people, recorded 762 murders last year, more than twice as many killings as in New York.

That spike prompted President-elect Donald Trump to suggest on Monday that the city needed federal help.

The trendlines in New York pointed downward in nearly all categories of reported crime, as shootings fell 12 percent, rapes fell 1 percent, robberies fell 9 percent and burglaries fell 15 percent.

Reports of felony-level assaults were up 2 percent, while reports of grand larcenies were flat, according to police numbers.

Police, politicians and criminologists have hotly debated the reasons behind the sharp drop in U.S. crime since the early 1990s, when New York City had more than 2,000 murders a year.

They have put forward explanations such as changing tactics, better data collection or even a reduction in lead poisoning.

New York City Police Commissioner James O’Neill credited last year’s reductions to a “laser-like precision” on gangs and to the department’s neighborhood policing program, which is aimed at improving relations between officers and the communities they patrol.

In a statement, O’Neil said, “2016 was the safest year ever in the history of New York City.”

(Reporting by David Ingram; Editing by Scott Malone and Lisa Shumaker)

New York, wary after Europe attacks, tightens security for New Year’s Eve

Members of the New York Police Department's Counterterrorism Bureau patrol Times Square in the lead up to New Year's celebrations in Manhattan, New York City, U.S. December 29, 2016

By Hilary Russ

NEW YORK (Reuters) – New York City will deploy sand-filled trucks and thousands of police officers as part of a beefed-up plan to protect revelers at this year’s New Year’s Eve celebrations in Times Square, mindful of two deadly truck attacks in Europe this year.

As many as 2 million people are expected to gather on Saturday to welcome the new year and authorities said on Thursday they were aware of no credible threat to the annual festivities at the famed Manhattan crossroads.

Even so, officials have redoubled efforts to prevent attacks like those in Germany and France this year in which suspected Islamic militants intentionally drove trucks into holiday crowds, killing dozens of civilians.

“People will be safe,” New York City Police Commissioner James O’Neill said at a news conference, aiming to allay any security concerns about the Times Square celebration, where a giant crystal ball will descend from a tower to mark the start of 2017.

“We’re going to have one of the most well-policed, best-protected events in one of the safest venues in the entire world given all the assets that we deploy here,” he said.

New York Police Chief of Department Carlos Gomez said the truck attacks in Europe were taken into consideration in planning New York’s security plan.

A truck attack at a holiday market in Berlin days before Christmas killed a dozen people and injured 56, while a similar incident in Nice, France, on Bastille Day this summer killed 86 people and injured more than 400.

Revelers in New York City on Saturday will find 65 large sanitation trucks filled with sand placed in strategic positions to block potential truck attacks, as well as about 100 other smaller “blocker” vehicles, officials said.

More than 80 sand trucks were used to protect the Macy’s 90th Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York after Islamic State militants abroad encouraged their followers to target the event, which drew an estimated 3.5 million people to the streets of the largest U.S. city.

For New Year’s Eve, the nearly 2 million visitors expected to gather in the hours before midnight may notice heavily armed police teams, bomb-sniffing dogs, helicopters and bag searches in subways. Coast Guard and police vessels will patrol the waterways surrounding Manhattan.

Officers also will make sweeps of area hotels, theaters and parking garages and monitor checkpoints where they scan for radiation and weapons, police said.

Other less visible layers of security include plainclothes officers, hundreds of security cameras, the removal of trash cans, sealed manhole covers and rooftop observation points.

All told, the New York Police Department has assigned nearly 7,000 police to Times Square and throughout the rest of the city on Saturday, officials said.

Umbrellas, large bags and alcohol are banned and portions of 57th and 59th streets will be closed to traffic.

(Reporting by Hilary Russ in New York; Editing by Frank McGurty and Bill Trott)

U.S. cities enlist public’s help in wake of deadly Oakland fire

Two children place flowers at a makeshift memorial near the scene of the fatal warehouse fire in Oakland, California

By Rory Carroll and Dan Levine

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – In the days since a warehouse fire in Oakland, California, killed at least 36 people attending a party, cities across the United States have vowed to find ways to prevent such tragedies.

In Portland, Oregon, an elected leader wants to require sprinklers before a building can host a special event. In Los Angeles, a councilmember is calling on citizens to report unsafe buildings.

In Baltimore, officials reacted swiftly on Monday to a citizen complaint about an art space called the Bell Foundry, condemning the building and ousting its tenants after finding violations that included a lack of permits, use of flammables and removal of ceiling beams, said Chief Roman Clark, a fire department spokesman.

The two-story California building where at least 36 people died lacked both sprinklers and smoke alarms. Oakland officials had issued multiple violation notices on the warehouse property over the past several years for trash, debris and rodents, according to city building department records. It was unclear if the city was aware of more serious violations such as just two exterior doors and wooden pallets partially forming a makeshift stairway.

A crane removes debris from the site of a fatal warehouse fire in Oakland, California, U.S.

A crane removes debris from the site of a fatal warehouse fire in Oakland, California, U.S. December 6, 2016. REUTERS/Stephen Lam

New York stepped up its enforcement of building safety codes following the 1990 Happy Land fire, which killed 87 people in an unlicensed dance club, said City Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley, who represents Queens and chairs the council’s fire committee.

“We’re seeing what’s happening there and it’s unbelievable. We want to make sure it doesn’t happen here or anywhere,” she said. “We should take this as a lesson and do our best as a country to make sure all of our cities are abiding by fire and safety regulations,” she said.

In Los Angeles, Councilmember Marqueece Harris-Dawson on Tuesday asked the public to report potential problem residences. “Some people simply aren’t aware that they are living in a place that is as unsafe as it is,” he said.

Los Angeles, he said has many empty warehouses and abandoned buildings that are used for parties and concerts and by the homeless seeking shelter.

Portland Commissioner Dan Saltzman said he wants more buildings to have sprinklers before holding gatherings. He also wants the public to tell the city about problems, as soaring rents have pushed people to live in unsafe conditions.

“We need to deputize the public as our inspectors too,” he said.

Arts organizations have also stepped up.

In Oakland, a group called Omni Commons will meet on Wednesday to see how they can help residents of makeshift spaces improve safety given an expected crackdown on building code violations, according to the group’s Facebook page.

A dance and circus art space called House of Yes in New York City will hold a fundraiser for Oakland victims, during which it will offer a fire-safety class.

In 2008, a non-fatal blaze destroyed the group’s former location, where 10 artists lived.

(Editing by Sue Horton and Lisa Shumaker)

NY blast kills highest ranking firefighter since Sept. 11 attacks

A New York City firefighter walks through debris after an explosion ripped through a home in the New York City borough of the Bronx, New York

By Laila Kearney

NEW YORK (Reuters) – An explosion at a home in the New York City borough of the Bronx on Tuesday killed a battalion chief, the city’s highest ranking fire official to die in the line of duty since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, officials said.

Michael Fahy, a 17-year veteran of the fire department, died after he was struck in the head by building debris sent flying to the street, Fire Department Commissioner Daniel Nigro told reporters at New York-Presbyterian/Allen Hospital.

“We lost a hero today and our members are all saddened,” said Nigro, who was visibly emotional. “He was a star, a brave man.”

FDNY Battalion Chief Michael J. Fahy, who died September 27, 2016 after an explosion ripped through a house in the Bronx section of New York City, is seen in an undated picture released by the New York City Fire Department. New York City

FDNY Battalion Chief Michael J. Fahy, who died September 27, 2016 after an explosion ripped through a house in the Bronx section of New York City, is seen in an undated picture released by the New York City Fire Department. New York City Fire Department/Handout via Reuters

 

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said Fahy, whose father was a fire battalion chief with the city and a contemporary of Nigro’s, leaves behind three children, ages 6, 8 and 11.

The Uniformed Firefighters Association of Greater New York said he was the highest-ranking New York fire official to die in the line of duty since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

The blast just after 7 a.m. EDT also injured 20 people, including nine firefighters and six police officers, many of whom were transported to the hospital, fire officials said. Their conditions were not immediately disclosed, and investigators have not determined the cause of the blast.

Without elaborating, Police Commissioner James O’Neill said detectives were investigating reports of a marijuana “grow home” in the area.

Firefighters investigated reports of a possible gas leak in the area for about an hour before the explosion tore the roof off the two-story home, Nigro said.

Fahy was directing operations, including evacuating nearby buildings, when he was struck in the head and elsewhere by the debris, the commissioner said.

Police rushed the battalion chief to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead. All of the victims were injured while in the street, Nigro said.

(Additional reporting by David Ingram and Daniel Wallis; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)

Investigators try to determine if accused New York bomber had help

robot retrieving unexploded bomb

By David Ingram and Nate Raymond

NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. authorities on Wednesday were looking into whether an Afghan-born American citizen charged with carrying out bombings in New York and New Jersey acted alone or had help as the city’s top federal public defender sought access to the suspect.

Police in New York City said they had not yet been permitted by doctors to speak to Ahmad Khan Rahami, 28, who was arrested on Monday after being wounded in a gunfight with police in Linden, New Jersey.

Rahami has been charged with wounding 31 people in a bombing in New York on Saturday that authorities called a “terrorist act.”

The Federal Bureau of Investigation released a photo of two men who found a second, unexploded pressure cooker device they say Rahami left in a piece of luggage in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood on Saturday night.

The two men, who took the bag but left the improvised bomb on the street are not suspects, officials said, but investigators want to interview them as witnesses.

“As far as whether he’s a lone actor, that’s still the path we are following, but we are keeping all the options open,” William Sweeney, the FBI’s assistant director in New York, told reporters.

Rahami is also charged with planting a bomb that exploded in Seaside Park, New Jersey, but did not injure anyone and planting explosive devices in his hometown of Elizabeth, New Jersey, which did not detonate. He faces charges from federal prosecutors in both states.

Federal prosecutors portray Rahami, who came to the United States at age 7 and became a naturalized citizen, as embracing militant Islamic views, begging for martyrdom and expressing outrage at the U.S. “slaughter” of Muslim fighters in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Palestine.

Investigators were also probing Rahami’s history of travel to Afghanistan and Pakistan, and looking for evidence that he may have picked up radical views or trained in bomb-making.

Both government and pro-Taliban sources in Pakistan on Wednesday said they had no knowledge of Rahami having met with prominent people connected to the Taliban or other religious groups.

Prosecutors plan to move Rahami to New York from the New Jersey hospital where he is being treated as soon as his medical condition allows, said Preet Bharara, the U.S. attorney in Manhattan.

DEFENSE LAWYER DEMANDS COURT APPEARANCE

Rahami’s wife met with U.S. law enforcement officials while in the United Arab Emirates and voluntarily gave a statement, a law enforcement official said on Wednesday. She was not in custody.

A New Jersey U.S. congressman previously said Rahami had emailed his office in 2014 for help in getting her a visa to enter the United States from Pakistan when she was pregnant.

Rahami’s defense attorney, David Patton, on Wednesday demanded that his first court appearance to be scheduled as soon as possible, even if it occurs in his hospital bed, saying that the defendant had a constitutional right to a lawyer and a court appearance within two days of his arrest.

New York Police Commissioner James O’Neill told a news conference that investigators had not yet received doctors’ clearance to interview Rahami, adding, “That may happen in the next 24 hours, pending the doctors’ approval.”

Federal prosecutors in New York noted that while they had filed charges against Rahami, he remained in the custody of state officials in New Jersey, who initially arrested him after Monday’s gunfight. They said that makes Patton’s request for access premature.

Patton, in a subsequent filing, shot back that such delays were unacceptable.

“Mr. Rahami was arrested more than 48 hours ago. His bail in New Jersey was set without any appointment of counsel or court appearance. He still has not been provided counsel. He does not have a scheduled court appearance in New Jersey until next week,” Patton said.

The attacks in New York and New Jersey were the latest in a series in the United States inspired by Islamic militant groups including al Qaeda and Islamic State. A pair of ethnic Chechen brothers killed three people and injured more than 260 at the 2013 Boston Marathon with homemade pressure-cooker bombs similar to those used in this weekend’s attacks.

Rahami, in other parts of a journal that prosecutors said he was carrying when he was arrested, praised “Brother” Osama bin Laden, the al Qaeda leader slain in a 2011 U.S. raid in Pakistan; Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born Muslim cleric and leading al Qaeda propagandist who was killed in a 2011 U.S. drone strike in Yemen; and Nidal Hasan, the U.S. Army psychiatrist who shot dead 13 people and wounded 32 at Fort Hood, Texas, in 2009.

Republican Rep. Michael McCaul, house Homeland Security Committee chairman, told CNN that Rahami’s writings in a journal showed that his actions had been inspired by Islamic State as “his guidance came from the lead ISIS spokesman.”

“What that tells me as a counterterrorism expert that now we can definitively say this was an ISIS-inspired terrorist attack.”

(Additional reporting by Doina Chiacu and Julia Edwards in Washington and Mehreen Zahra-Malik in Quetta, Pakistan; Writing by Scott Malone and Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Will Dunham and Alan Crosby)

A New York Tale, Two men find bag, remove bomb, take bag

By Dan Whitcomb

(Reuters) – New York City police investigating a bombing in Manhattan over the weekend said on Monday they wanted to question two men who appeared to stumble over a second device made from a pressure cooker that had been left inside a bag lying on a city street.

In a lucky break that helped authorities to thwart a second detonation on Saturday, the men walked away with the bag after taking out what turned out to be a homemade bomb and leaving it exposed on the pavement on 27th Street.

Police discovered the device soon after a bomb exploded four blocks away on 23rd Street in the Chelsea neighborhood and left 29 people injured.

The two men, caught on surveillance video footage, are considered potential witnesses, not suspects, in the bombing, said Robert Boyce, chief of detectives for the New York City Police Department.

“They looked like they were two gentlemen just strolling up and down Seventh Avenue at the time. We have no information that would link them to this at all,” Boyce said at a briefing. “However, we still want to talk to them, obviously.”

Boyce said the two men were seen picking up the bag containing the device, removing it and then leaving with the bag, for reasons that remains unclear. Police provided no specific description of the men who they said took the bag.

“Once they picked up the bag, they seemed incredulous they had actually picked this up off the street and they walked off with it,” Boyce said. “So we’ll find out, we’ll put their images out. Hopefully we can get them identified.”

Earlier on Monday an Afghanistan-born American suspected of detonating the bomb in Chelsea and of planting other devices in New York and New Jersey was arrested following a gun battle with police.

Ahmad Khan Rahami, a 28-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen from Elizabeth, New Jersey, was taken into custody hours after authorities identified him as the prime suspect in the Saturday night blast.

Police suspect Rahami was also behind a bomb that exploded in a New Jersey beach town on Saturday, as well as leaving the device found on the sidewalk after the New York blast. On Sunday, five more devices were found in Elizabeth, the suspect’s hometown.Police in Linden, New Jersey, which neighbors Elizabeth about 20 miles (32 km) west of New York, captured Rahami after responding to a complaint by a bar owner of a man sleeping in the closed establishment’s hallway.

(Reporting by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Frank McGurty and Mary Milliken)

Authorities identify suspect in New York explosions US-USA-ATTACKS

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and other security officials mark evidence near the site of an explosion which took place on Saturday night in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan, New York,

By Alex Dobuzinskis

(Reuters) – Authorities have identified a suspect in the Manhattan explosion case as a 28-year-old New Jersey resident of Afghan descent who may be armed and dangerous, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Monday.

The New York Police Department released a photo of Ahmad Khan Rahami, who was wanted for questioning in the Saturday night explosions in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood, de Blasio said on CNN.

“He could be armed and dangerous,” de Blasio said, warning that residents should be vigilant and report sightings to authorities.

Ahmad Khan Rahami in a photo released by the FBI. REUTERS/FBI

Ahmad Khan Rahami in a photo released by the FBI. REUTERS/FBI

In Elizabeth, New Jersey, on Monday, the FBI was executing a search warrant, Mayor Christian Bollwage told CNN earlier.

“They will be there for the next few hours, going through this location to find any evidence possible, whether it’s in relation to this incident or the Chelsea incident,” he said.

An explosive device left near a train station in Elizabeth, blew up earlier on Monday when a bomb squad robot cut a wire on the mechanism, one of as many as five potential bombs found at the site, the city’s mayor said.

No one was injured in the blast that followed a series of attacks in the United States over the weekend, including the Saturday night bombing that hurt 29 people in Manhattan.

The device had been left in a backpack placed in a trash can near a train station and a bar, Bollwage told reporters earlier.

As many as five potential explosive devices tumbled out of the backpack when it was emptied, Bollwage said. After cordoning off the area, a bomb squad used a robot to cut a wire to try to disable the device, but inadvertently set off an explosion, he said.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said the investigation was focusing on a person of interest in the case.

“The evidence might suggest a foreign connection,” Cuomo said in television interviews on Monday morning.

The Chelsea blast followed a pipe bomb explosion on Saturday morning along the route of a running race in the New Jersey beach town of Seaside Park. No one was injured in that blast.

(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles, Doina Chiacu and Susan Heavey in Washington; Eric M. Johnson in Seattle; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)

New York City shaken by ‘intentional’ explosion, 29 injured

firefighters near the site of the explosion

By Simon Webb and David Ingram

NEW YORK (Reuters) – An explosion rocked the bustling Chelsea district of Manhattan on Saturday night, injuring at least 29 people in what authorities described as a deliberate, criminal act, while saying investigators had found no evidence of a “terror connection.”

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and other city officials said investigators had ruled out a gas leak as the cause of the blast, but they stopped short of calling it a bombing and declined to specify precisely what they believed may have triggered the explosion.

Neha Jain, 24, who lives in the neighborhood, said she was sitting at home watching a movie when she heard a huge boom and everything shook.

“Pictures on my wall fell, the window curtain came flying as if there was a big gush of wind,” she told Reuters. “Then we could smell smoke. We went downstairs to see what happened, and firemen immediately told us to go back.”

Police said a sweep of the neighborhood following the blast had turned up a possible “secondary device” four blocks away consisting of a pressure cooker with wires attached to it and connected to a cell phone.

Residents living nearby were advised to stay away from windows facing the street as a precaution, and the item was later safely moved to a police firing range for further examination, officer Christopher Pisano said.

As of Sunday morning, police were still seeking to determine whether the item was an explosive and had not detonated it, said New York police Lieutenant Thomas Antonetti.

Pressure cookers packed with explosives and detonated with timing devices were used by two Massachusetts brothers in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing that killed three people and wounded more than 260.

The latest blast came less than a week after law enforcement agencies around the country were on heightened alert for the 15th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, airline-hijacking attacks that killed nearly 3,000 Americans in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.

Remaining circumspect about the exact nature of the explosion in Chelsea, De Blasio said early indications were that it was “an intentional act.” He added that the site of the blast, outside on a major thoroughfare in the fashionable West Side Manhattan neighborhood, was being treated as a crime scene.

“There is no evidence at this point of a terror connection,” the mayor said at a news conference about three hours after the blast. “There is no specific and credible threat against New York City at this point in time from any terror organization.”

The mayor also said investigators did not believe there was any link to a pipe bomb that exploded earlier on Saturday in the New Jersey beach town of Seaside Park. No injuries were reported in that blast, from a device planted in a plastic trash can along the route of a charity foot race.

But a U.S. official said that a Joint Terrorism Task Force, an interagency group of federal, state and local officials, was called to investigate the Chelsea blast, suggesting authorities have not ruled out the possibility of a terror connection.

A joint task force also took the lead in investigating the New Jersey incident.

ONE PERSON SERIOUSLY INJURED

A law enforcement official told Reuters an initial investigation suggested the Chelsea explosion occurred in a dumpster. CNN cited law enforcement sources as saying they believed an improvised explosive device caused the blast.

President Barack Obama, attending a congressional dinner in Washington, “has been apprised of the explosion in New York City, the cause of which remains under investigation,” a White House official said.

New York City Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro said 29 people were hurt in the blast, and 24 of them had been taken to hospitals, including one he described as seriously injured. The rest suffered various cuts, scrapes and other minor injuries, Nigro said.

The explosion, described by one neighbor as “deafening,” happened outside the Associated Blind Housing facility at 135 W. 23rd Street. The facility provides housing, training and other services for the blind.

Hundreds of people were seen fleeing down the block as police rushed to cordon off the area.

Tsi Tsi Mallett, who was driving along 23rd Street when the explosion took place, told Reuters the blast blew out her vehicle’s rear window. Her 10-year-old son in the back seat was unhurt, she said.

“It was really loud, it hurt my eardrums,” she said.

Even before the explosion, New York was tightening security for the start of this week’s U.N. General Assembly session, which is expected to bring 135 world leaders and dozens of foreign government ministers to the city.

The explosion quickly became an issue in the presidential race, with Republican candidate Donald Trump remarking about the explosion when he appeared at a Colorado rally.

“Just before I got off the plane, a bomb went off in New York, and nobody knows exactly what’s going on,” Trump said a hours before New York officials spoke publicly about the blast.

“We better get very tough, folks.”

Democratic rival Hillary Clinton made a statement on her campaign plane on the ground in New York, saying she had been briefed on “the bombings in New York and New Jersey.” But she said she would wait until she had more information before commenting further.

(Additional reporting by Frank McGurty and Angela Moon in New York, Alex Dobuzinksis in Los Angeles, Tim Ahmann and Mark Hosenball in Washington; Writing by Steve Gorman; Editing by Mary Milliken, Robert Birsel and Raissa Kasolowsky)