New York on alert as bomb fails to detonate

POLICE found an “amateurish” but potentially powerful bomb that apparently began to detonate but did not explode in a smoking sport utility vehicle in Times Square, authorities said yesterday.

Thousands of tourists were cleared from the streets for 10 hours after two vendors alerted police to the suspicious vehicle, which contained three propane tanks, fireworks, two filled 5-gallon petrol containers, and two clocks with batteries, electrical wire and other components, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said.

“We avoided what we could have been a very deadly event,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg said. “It certainly could have exploded and had a pretty big fire and a decent amount of explosive impact.”

The bomb appeared to be starting to detonate but malfunctioned, top police spokesman Paul Browne said.

Firefighters who arrived shortly after the first call heard a popping sound, said Fire Commissioner Sal Cassano, who described the sound as not quite an explosion.

No suspects were in custody, though Kelly said a surveillance video showed the car driving west on 45th Street before it parked between Seventh and Eighth avenues.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said on NBC’s Meet the Press programme that officials are treating the incident as a potential terrorist attack.