Twenty-nine people were injured at around 8:30 p.m. on Saturday from an explosion in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan. New York Police officers on routine patrol, witnessed a large explosion in front of 131 West 23rd Street in or near a dumpster.
The officers immediately called for additional units and ambulances. The NYPD Bomb Squad and the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force responded to the scene.
Mayor Bill De Blasio said almost immediately after the explosion that act was intentional, but authorities had found “no evidence at this point of a terror connection to this incident.”
“The exact nature and cause of this explosion has not yet been determined,” said New York Police commissioner James O’Neill.
A second device was found on West 27 Street in Chelsea. The device appeared to be a pressure cooker with wires protruding from it and a cellphone attached to it.
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An explosive device went off earlier in the day Seaside Heights New Jersey just prior to the Seaside Semper Five Marine Corps Charity 5K at approximately 9:30 a.m.
According to NewJersey.com, multiple devices were also found “wired together” in the same container but they did not detonate, according to Al Della Fave, spokesman for the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office.
Federal and state law enforcement agencies were deployed to investigate the scene.