Posted on 05/05/2005 7:28:19 AM PDT by Wiz
NEW YORK - Two makeshift grenades exploded outside a building housing the British Consulate early Thursday, Election Day in Britain, causing slight damage but injuring no one, officials said.
Officials stressed that it was not clear whether the consulate itself had been targeted. The midtown Manhattan office building houses a variety of domestic and foreign companies.
"We do not at this point have any idea who did it or a motive," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said, adding the explosion was caused by "a relatively unsophisticated explosive device." There were no threats or phone calls, he said.
The grenades had been placed inside a cement flower box outside the front door of the building.
After piecing together the shrapnel, police determined the devices were toy grenades that had been filled with gunpowder. Officers estimated that one was the size of a pineapple; the other the size of a lemon.
No timing device was used, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said.
The blasts, which Kelly said happened around 3:35 a.m., shattered a panel of glass in the building's front door and ripped a one-foot chunk from the planter.
The British consulate is on the 9th and 10th floors of the building, the mayor said. He said he expected it would be open for business later in the day.
Offices of other foreign diplomatic representatives were checked as a precaution and nothing was found, Kelly said. Security videos in the area were being reviewed, he said.
In London, a Foreign Office spokeswoman, asked whether British authorities believed the blast was terror-related, said only: "Investigations are ongoing."
"We're not speculating about whether it's connected to the election," she added. Calls to the British Embassy in Washington were not immediately returned.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair is seeking a third term in office. With the country's economy doing well, Blair's Labour Party was widely expected to win despite anger over his support of the Iraq war.
The 14-story glass and metal building, on 3rd Avenue at 51st Street less than a mile from the United Nations headquarters, has retail shops on the lower level.
The closure of streets around the site caused some rush hour disruptions. For a few hours, trains on one subway line skipped the stop close to the site.
In Chicago, police closed a portion of Michigan Avenue near the British Consulate for about 30 minutes to search the area as a precaution, police spokeswoman Laura Kubiak said.
Umm, it IS terrorism. Period. Terror is not "terror related", unless he mean't "Muslim sponsored terror related".
More terror on U.S. soil, probably perpetrated by foreigners here illegally. When does that end?
The circumstances strongly suggest drunken teenagers who just left a bar. They probably had no idea what building it was.
Oops, I saw "1 minute ago" on the Yahoo! News so I thought it was something new. Sorry about that.
So the fact that it's an election day in Britain is pure coincidence?
Thanks for who ever noticed the admin, and removed it from breaking news. Meanwhile I did a search for a duplicate but did not think in depth about a related article and I admit my mistakes, it is rude to use the key word function adding these: "ALREADYPOSTED; EVERREADBREAKINGNEWS; ONETHREADBELOW; SEARCHISYOURFRIEND". Whoever did this, USE THE COMMENT FUNCTION to make a complaint to me.
Heh... Rather incompetent whoever it was. I'd suspect DUers first.
I hope no one misses "makeshift grenades", the crAP's introduction of IEDs to the US. Used to be pipe-bombs. Fsucking idiots, the crAP.
A United Nations employee from the Netherlands is being questioned.
"A United Nations employee from the Netherlands is being questioned."
This sounds like the work of anarchists. Probably just one.
bump
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.