A pressure cooker device was found four blocks away where an explosion in Chelsea injured 29 people. (CNN)
CHELSEA, Manhattan — Twenty-nine people were injured in an “intentional” explosion in the heart of Chelsea Saturday night, jolting a bustling neighborhood teeming with restaurants, bars and pedestrians and alarming the city on what had been a calm weekend evening.
“This was an intentional act,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said at a news conference Saturday night. He said there is no known link to terrorism or the explosion that happened in Seaside Park, N.J. earlier Saturday. “New Yorkers will not be intimidated. We will not let anyone change who we are or how we go about our lives.”
Governor Andrew Cuomo also emphasized in a press conference Sunday early investigation shows no link to international terrorism.
“Bomb explosion in New York is an act of terrorism, but it’s not linked to international terrorism,” Cuomo said. There is no link found yet to international groups such as ISIS.
The 29 people injured in the blast have been released from the hospital. Cuomo said the explosion caused “significant damage” in the Chelsea neighborhood, but said, “When you see the amount of damage, we really were lucky that there were no fatalities.”
A secondary device — a pressure cooker with dark colored wiring protruding, connected by silver duct tape to what appears to be a cellphone — was safely removed early Sunday by the NYPD Bomb Squad according to police sources.