An explosion rocked New York’s neighborhood of Chelsea on Saturday wounding 29 people but with no apparent terror connection at this point, officials said.
One of the 29 people injured in the blast, which police are treating as intentional, is in serious condition, officials added.
“There is no evidence at this point of a terror connection to this incident, this is preliminary information,” Mayor Bill de Blasio told a news conference.
“It’s something we will be investigating very carefully, but there is no evidence at this point of a terror connection,” he added.
Of the 29 people wounded in the incident, 24 have been taken to hospitals with various degrees of scrapes and abrasions from glass and metal, said Fire Department commissioner Daniel Nigro.
Police said the specific cause of the explosion, which occurred on the street at around 8:30pm (0030 GMT) was not clear but was not caused by gas.
“We believe it was intentional,” de Blasio said.
The mayor said it was not immediately apparent if the blast was connected to an explosion in a trash can in New Jersey earlier Saturday.
