Explosive device

What the hell is a suspicious-looking biyclist? Like we need to give the city any other reason to harrass us.

Explosive device damages Times Square armed forces recruiting police investigating

March 6, 2008
BY ASSOCIATED PRESS

A suspicious-looking bicyclist was spotted just before an explosion rocked the Times Square military recruitment center – the same scenario as two unsolved embassy bombings, police said.

The bicyclist, reportedly in a grey hooded sweatshirt, was seen around the time of the 3:45 a.m. blast in midtown, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly told reporters today.

“Someone was trying to make a statement,” a police source said.

The vacant office, the nation’s busiest recruiting station, suffered shattered windows and twisted metal. No injuries were reported, although the blast rattled guests in the nearby Marriott Marquis hotel.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg, standing alongside Kelly, said the attack “insults every one of our brave men and women in uniform stationed around the world.”

The mention of a bicyclist raised possible links to a May 2005 bombing at the British Consulate and an Oct. 26 explosion at the Mexican Consulate.

In both cases, police said, the suspect was possibly riding a bicycle when hollowed-out grenades – filled with black powder and a fuse – were tossed into the consulates.

No arrests were made in those attacks. Authorities said it was too early to connect the Times Square explosion with those incidents.

There was no word on the type of device used in the attack on the recruiting station parked on a traffic island at W. 43rd St.