http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...NewsCollection
Bomb Fears Shut Down Times Square
MAY 2, 2010, 12:57 A.M. ET
By R.M. SCHNEIDERMAN, SEAN GARDINER and ELLEN GAMERMAN
A failed car bomb shut down Times Square on Saturday night, causing panic, evacuations and confusion on one of the tourist spot's busiest and most crowded nights.
Police said a Nissan Pathfinder at West 45th Street and Seventh Avenue was loaded with a bomb made of electrical components, three propane gas tanks and two additional gas canisters. They received the call about the suspicious vehicle around 6:30 p.m. and blocked the area from West 43rd to 47th streets along Broadway and Seventh Avenue with metal railings. Parts of 48th Street were also closed.
Mayor MIchael Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly were due to hold a news conference at Times Square at about 1 a.m. Sunday.
NYPD closed off streets from pedestrian and vehicle traffic.
Police said their suspicion was aroused because the vehicle's license plates didn't match the make of the car. They dispatched a bomb squad and a robot to check the car. Their attempts to break into the car alarmed some passersby.
Larry Franklin, 56, a street vendor said a friend reported a man to police who put keys in the black SUV and walked away. His friend told him smoke began coming out of the back and police rushed to the scene.
"I looked back and boom," said Matthew Fox, 44, a street vendor. "Everyone started running and women started screaming.""I was 10 blocks away from 9/11 when it happened," Fox said, "and this wasn't anything like that."
"It sounded like a deeper gun shot," said Ivan Morrison, 19, who was in town from Vermont to see "The Addams Family."
....By 11 p.m., a clerk at the Paramount Hotel on 46th between 7th and 8th said guests were not allowed to come in or out.
The clerk added that the Marriot Marquis on 46th and Broadway had been evacuated. Repeated calls to the Marriot weren't answered.
A clerk from the Hilton Times Square Hotel said that at least parts of 42nd Street were closed just before midnight and that guests can only enter or exit on 41st Street.