NEWS: Explosion in New York City Subway Station

A bag exploded, hurting an officer in the A, C, E Subway station in New York's Time Square at 42nd Street station. While investigation is still ongoing, it is believed to have been caused by a pipe bomb hidden in a backpack.
Originally it was thought the bag contained fireworks.




The bomb appeared to contain ball bearings and gunpowder packed into a length of plastic pipe.

A retired police officer discovered a burning bag on the steps of the subway station, and called for backup. Before the HAZMAT and bomb squad could arrive, the bag exploded, injuring the officer.


[edit on 20-7-2004 by Banshee]

NY1 and CBS-NY aren't reporting anything.

Nothing from reuters. AP. Nada.

Likewise, I just went through every site I could think of, and every news channel, I've heard nothing about this.

Got it. They say it was fireworks...



[edit on 7-19-2004 by William One Sac]

Nice job William One Sac.

The title should be changed from "Bomb Blast..." to "Fireworks Explosion...". I nearly spit-up all over my screen! :w:

Me too!

Apparently it wasn't a fireworks explosion.

Typical Newstore answer- Kids with to much time on their hands in NYC, school out for the summer and found a stick o dynamite....

The schizo/conspiracy nut answer- Another dry run, in a subway, how much time till someone notices it? Someone noticed it, and was it remotely detonated? Was it set for timer. Strange that someone saw,walked towards it and then it went off. Loud enough to shake buildings? this is no cherry bomb....

ANyone on here live in the area in NY, all my relatives live on the Island....

THere is also another post with a link to a different story......here it is

abclocal.go.com...#

[edit on 20-7-2004 by esdad71]

A firework explosion on a Metro system was a scenario used on a NOVA television programme called Dirty Bomb, broadcast in 2003.

www.pbs.org...


How much damage could such a small amount of radioactive material cause? Our scientists have constructed another hypothetical scenario to find out.

In this fictional scenario, the terrorists simply mix the small amount of cesium found inside the industrial gauge with powder from a store-bought firework. The target is Washington D.C.'s Metro, used by half a million commuters every day.

There is a small flash beside the track in one of the tunnels, as the mixture ignites. Almost immediately, a highly effective dispersal mechanism is at work: the trains. They push radioactive particles down the track towards commuters.

MICHAEL LEVI: There won't be any immediate signs that the dispersal of radioactive materials has occurred. We can't see or hear or taste them.

NARRATOR: But the cesium particles would quietly continue to spread. Radioactive dust would enter subway cars as the doors open.

MICHAEL LEVI: People could track them on their feet, underneath their shoes. Trains could move them actively between stations.

NARRATOR: While some particles would be carried on to the next stop, others would move out of the station via the Metro's ventilation system.

How much of a health threat would this pose? The typical commuter would receive twice the background dose they get in the course of an average year but only for a short period--an average of 15 minutes. That translates into a small increase in their cancer risk, just one in four thousand by standard, conservative estimates.

MICHAEL LEVI: Individual riders are unlikely to be affected even if the material remains there for several hours without being disclosed, simply because any one person doesn't spend all that much time in the station.

NARRATOR: But it might be worse for the staff. After an 8-hour shift, their cancer risks could rise by one in a hundred.

STEVE JACKSON: They would have to be carefully monitored, and I'm sure they'd actually want to be monitored for a considerable period afterwards.

NARRATOR: Scientists agree that these health risks are manageable. But the psychological factor may be another story.

REPORTERS VOICES: City authorities said they were urgently trying to establish the...

...scope of the scale of radioactive contamination...

NARRATOR: When news of the attack breaks, people in Washington, D.C. would be desperate to know the extent of the contamination.

JACK CARAVELLI: The news media comes on and says a small device has exploded in Washington. What is the reaction of the populace? How do you control that? What do you say to them? Do you say a lot? Do you say very little?

ANDREW REVKIN: I think, initially, people would get the hell out. Emergency workers would have to deal with the real peril from just panic. And that's something that presumably, hopefully, city emergency planners are working on right now...is how do you deal with that?

CHARLES FERGUSON: You'd probably have more deaths due to traffic accidents than due to ionizing radiation.

NARRATOR: It could be hard for authorities to provide answers as fast as people want. Contamination could be patchy, high in some parts of the Metro, low in others, making it difficult to be sure immediately how serious the attack had been.

JACK CARAVELLI: It may be unclear, for perhaps some period of time, exactly what the radioactivity was, how much there was of it.

NARRATOR: And that short period of uncertainty could be enough to fuel our fears.


zero lift

Current train of thought seems to be a pipe bomb:
www.guardian.co.uk...
www.usatoday.com...

I wonder how they can so quickly determine that this isn't the work of terrorists. Perhaps probing our responses. Maybe trying to see the best position for a secondary device? From esdad71's link:
abclocal.go.com...#

Detectives say this could be a lot of things. But what it does not appear to be, at least so far, is an act of terrorism. Witnesses say the explosion shook their buildings, and the smell of gunpowder lingered in the air.

Also, this pipe bomb was definitely created to cause injury:

Sources familiar with the case say the device was actually a short length of plastic pipe, stuffed with gunpowder and steel pellets, hidden in a backpack.

The only reason to put pellets in that type of device is to cause bodily injury.

I remember seeing a BBC Horizion documentary called DIRTY BOMB recently, they put forward theories on types of Dirty Bomb attacks, one was a car bomb in London and one was a firecracker in a subway in Washington. The firework is mixed with a small amount of radioactive powder which gets spread after the small and relatively innocent explosion, but it moves along the underground, getting pushed by trains to other stations, gets inside the trains, gets trapped under passangers shoes, spread the radioactive material over a wide area.

This incident of a small explosion in a subway suddenly reminded me of that. Anyone else see that documentary?

[edit on 20-7-2004 by rangeroftheeast]

NARRATOR: In this fictional scenario the terrorists simply mix the caesium from an industrial gauge with the contents of a store-bought firework.

In this scenario the target is Washington's Metro, used by half a million commuters every day. There is a small flash as the mixture beside the track ignites. Almost immediately a highly effective dispersal mechanism is at work: the trains. They push radioactive particles down the track towards commuters.

MICHAEL LEVI: There won't be any immediate signs that the dispersal of radioactive materials has occurred. We can't see or hear or taste them.

NARRATOR: But the caesium particles would quietly begin to spread. Radioactive dust would enter carriages as the doors opened.

MICHAEL LEVI: People could track/trap them on their feet, underneath their shoes. Trains could move them actively between stations.

NARRATOR: While some particles would be carried on to the next stop, others would move via the Metro's ventilation system and no one in Washington would know until 24 hours later when the terrorists announce they've attacked the Metro.

[edit on 20-7-2004 by rangeroftheeast]

Turner Network Television (TNT) and the BBC tackle one of the most dramatic issues of modern times-international terrorism-in THE GRID, an original limited series that explores both sides of the escalating war on terrorism.
www.tnt.tv...

This television mini-series appeared on TNT last evening. Lastnights episode included an evactuation of the NY subway which turned out to be a decoy by the terrorists which struck in Nigeria with the real attack. This story sort of reminded me of the show. The program was well done.

Humm, the "retired" police officer who found it was a 4 year veteran, at least he says but the police are investigating this....

Could this retired cop have been the one who placed the bomb?
i doubt it was related to Islamic terrorism, the explosive seems to me to have been build only to make noise.

It is my guess, althou i could be wrong, that it is highly probable that the "retired" police officer was the one who set up this bomb, perhaps to attract attention and be hailed as a hero....if he is indeed a retired police officer as he says.

If it wasn't him and he is a retired police officer, then someone else was playing a prank.

Altough, it is also possible it was just a test by terrorists to see how the city and police reacted.

[edit on 20-7-2004 by Muaddib]

I think this officers vigilance should be noted, not chipped away at.

Why was no-one else injured? How long did it sit there before someone said something? I also find it strange that it exploded when he approached it. (alka remote detonation).

C'mon, the RNC is less than a month away, this is the last thing they need to be broadcast tothe nation. This seems to be a test of reaction by someone.

Maybe it was a NYU student? Maybe is was a disgruntled transit worker? or maybe it was a terrorist? let's hope more news is too follow.

Originally posted by esdad71
I think this officers vigilance should be noted, not chipped away at.

Why was no-one else injured? How long did it sit there before someone said something? I also find it strange that it exploded when he approached it. (alka remote detonation).

C'mon, the RNC is less than a month away, this is the last thing they need to be broadcast tothe nation. This seems to be a test of reaction by someone.

Maybe it was a NYU student? Maybe is was a disgruntled transit worker? or maybe it was a terrorist? let's hope more news is too follow.

Seems like a pretty lame attack for a terrorist, afterall they weren't sure first if it was a firework of a pipebomb. My guess would be that it's some nut who tried to cash in on the tension about a terror attack that there is at the moment.

Originally posted by esdad71
I think this officers vigilance should be noted, not chipped away at.

I was stating the three most logical reasons for this, and believe me the police officers investigating this are going to think the same way.

When a crime is committed you investigate first those closest to the crime, crime scene in this case, and work your way from there, it is not the other way around unless there is evidence that points to the contrary.

[edit on 20-7-2004 by Muaddib]

Originally posted by Muaddib


It is my guess, althou i could be wrong, that it is highly probable that the "retired" police officer was the one who set up this bomb...

It looks like you may be correct. The police are investigating the retired officer and his possible involvement in the case. However, I should add that they are just researching that line of reasoning, they havent made an arrest or anything.

Police are investigating whether a subway blast Monday that injured a police officer might have been the work of the officer, who was recently granted a 9/11-related psychological disability, law enforcement sources said Tuesday.

The officer, Joseph Rodriguez, had been on the verge of being fired last week for unclear reasons when the department granted him the disability for problems "rooted in 9/11," sources said.

Sorce: NY Newsday

Sorry, just giving benefit of the doubt to the cop. If you get robbed, 99% of the time the person knows you so I see what you mean. If hope the poor bastard did it, trust me. I would rather learn that it was a one time nut job.