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Pressure Cookers Left at N.Y. Subway Station Disrupt Morning Commute Rice Cookers Left at N.Y. Subway Station Disrupt Morning Commute
(32 minutes later)
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Two pressure cookers left at a subway station in Lower Manhattan on Friday morning caused a major scare and significantly disrupted the commute as the police investigated. Two empty rice cookers left at a subway station in Lower Manhattan caused a major scare in the city on Friday morning, significantly disrupting the commute as the police investigated.
The police were also investigating a third suspicious package found on the street at 16th Street and Seventh Avenue in Manhattan, in the Chelsea neighborhood, officials said. They had not yet identified the device and were unsure if it was related to the devices found in the subway system. Officials were also investigating a third rice cooker that was found near a garbage can at 16th Street and Seventh Avenue in the Chelsea neighborhood, officials said. None of the devices were explosive, the police said.
The pressure cookers were not explosive devices, the police said. They were left on a platform at the Fulton Street station, a busy transit hub where eight subway lines converge in the Financial District. The police were not sure whether the appliances, which were all the same model, were related but said they were seeking a person of interest who was seen on video leaving two devices on the subway platform at the Fulton Street station.
It was unclear who left the pressure cookers on the platform, and whether it was done intentionally. John Miller, the New York Police Department’s deputy commissioner for intelligence and counterterrorism, stressed that while the man had been seen placing the devices, he was not yet suspected of any criminal activity.
The police were alerted to the packages around 7:15 a.m., a spokeswoman said, and sent the bomb squad and the Emergency Service Unit to investigate. Officers cleared the station. “It is possible that somebody picked up a bunch of items in the trash today, and this guy picked them up and discarded them,” Mr. Miller said.
Service on multiple subway lines was interrupted and delayed as law enforcement investigated. The bomb scare contained echoes of several incidents that have rattled residents in New York and elsewhere, including a shrapnel-filled pressure cooker that exploded in Chelsea in 2016 and the pressure cookers used in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings.
The bomb scare contained echoes of several recent incidents that have rattled New Yorkers. The investigation into the rice cookers was ongoing, the police said. As a precaution, officials said they had deployed counterterrorism units to other transit hubs, including Grand Central Terminal and Columbus Circle in Manhattan and Atlantic Terminal in Brooklyn.
The police began investigating the devices at the Fulton Street station, a busy transit hub where eight subway lines converge in the Financial District, around 7 a.m., officials said.
A video of the station showed a white man with a shopping cart placing one rice cooker on the platform for the No. 2 and 3 subway lines, Mr. Miller said. The other was on the mezzanine.
Mr. Miller said that the timing of the incident and the placement of the devices had led officials to investigate whether the rice cookers were intended as “a hoax device.”
“The time, rush hour; the place, a subway station; the item, rice cookers that could be mistaken for pressure cookers,” he said. “It certainly is the kind of thing that we would want to know why is he placing them there and what is the purpose of that.”
But, Mr. Miller reiterated, the police were not sure of the man’s intent.
“As you all know, there are people with shopping carts who pick up things on the street and put them back down on the street, and that’s kind of a fact of urban life,” he said.
Officials sent the bomb squad and the Emergency Service Unit to investigate, and officers cleared the station.
Service on multiple subway lines was interrupted and delayed as law enforcement investigated. One train was evacuated on the platform and another was turned around and sent back a station, according to Andy Byford, the president of New York City Transit.
“As ever, we always put safety first,” Mr. Byford said.
By 10 a.m., service had resumed at Fulton Street on all lines except the No. 2 and 3 lines.
As officers investigated the initial two devices, they received a report around 8:10 a.m. of the third rice cooker in Chelsea, said Chief Edward Delatorre, the head of the Police Department’s transit bureau.
The police had not yet determined where that rice cooker came from or who discarded it.
In December 2017, a man detonated a homemade pipe bomb in a crowded subway passage near the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Manhattan, also during the morning commute. The weapon failed to fully detonate, and the attacker was the only one injured.In December 2017, a man detonated a homemade pipe bomb in a crowded subway passage near the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Manhattan, also during the morning commute. The weapon failed to fully detonate, and the attacker was the only one injured.
A year earlier, a pressure cooker packed with shrapnel exploded in Chelsea on 23rd Street, injuring at least 29 people. Hours later, the authorities found, disarmed and removed a second explosive device just blocks away. A year earlier, a pressure cooker packed with shrapnel exploded in Chelsea on 23rd Street, injuring at least 29 people. Hours later, the authorities found, disarmed and removed a second explosive device just blocks away.
Pressure cookers were also used in the deadly Boston Marathon bombings in 2013, where the devices were based on a model mentioned in publications issued by Al Qaeda’s affiliate in Yemen.Pressure cookers were also used in the deadly Boston Marathon bombings in 2013, where the devices were based on a model mentioned in publications issued by Al Qaeda’s affiliate in Yemen.
The investigations on Friday morning began at Fulton Street, the fifth busiest station in New York City’s subway system, with nearly 93,000 passengers using it on the average weekday, according to Metropolitan Transportation Authority.The investigations on Friday morning began at Fulton Street, the fifth busiest station in New York City’s subway system, with nearly 93,000 passengers using it on the average weekday, according to Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
The station’s building, a glass-and-steel complex known as the Fulton Center, opened in 2014, after years of construction. The original station was damaged during the Sept. 11 terrorism attacks in 2001.The station’s building, a glass-and-steel complex known as the Fulton Center, opened in 2014, after years of construction. The original station was damaged during the Sept. 11 terrorism attacks in 2001.
Many more riders pass through the larger Fulton complex, which also connects riders to the World Trade Center transit hub. Many more riders pass through the larger Fulton complex, which includes multiple retail outlets and food vendors like Shake Shack and Haagen Dazs, and also connects riders to the World Trade Center transit hub.
Ali Watkins contributed reporting. The Fulton Center, cordoned off by yellow tape, was unusually empty on Friday morning as police officers, some of whom walked bomb-sniffing dogs, investigated.
Law enforcement officials and transit workers in orange vests stood in front of the station’s multiple entrances on Broadway, just blocks from City Hall and the World Trade Center, directing traffic and offering route guidance to tourists and frustrated commuters.
Diana Freeman was just getting off a night shift as a security guard at Pace University and was supposed to take the subway home to the Bronx. Instead, she was greeted by an equally confused transit worker blocking off the subway entrance she usually takes.
Tired, she was attempting to re-reroute her commute. The M.T.A.’s phone app said that the nearby Wall Street station was open, but Ms. Freeman was skeptical.
“I don’t trust that app,” she said.
Ali Watkins and Luis Ferré-Sadurní contributed reporting.