NY police probe failed car bomb

INVESTIGATORS spoke to the registered owner of an SUV used as a homemade car bomb in a failed terror attack in the heart of Times Square, police officials said, but would not say what they learned.

Paul Browne, the NYPD’s deputy commissioner for public information, would not give further details on the owner.

The 1993 dark-colored Nissan Pathfinder did not have a clearly visible vehicle identification number but it was stamped on the engine and axle.

Its licence plates came from a car found in a Connecticut repair shop.

Investigators were also looking to speak with a man in his 40s videotaped shedding his shirt near the vehicle where the bomb was found.

The surveillance video, made public late on Sunday, shows an unidentified white man apparently in his 40s slipping down Shubert Alley and taking off his shirt, revealing another underneath. In the same clip, he looks back in the direction of the smoking vehicle and furtively puts the first shirt in a bag.

Attorney General Eric Holder said investigators have some good leads in addition to the videotape of the man. Holder said it is too early to say whether the incident was of foreign or domestic origin or to designate it as terrorism.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said on NBC’s Today show that no suspects or theories had been ruled out. “Right now, every lead has to be pursued,” she said.