New York police foil Time Square car bomb attack

POLICE found an "amateurish" but potentially powerful bomb that apparently began to detonate but did not explode in a car parked in New York's Times Square, authorities said today.

Thousands of tourists were cleared from the streets for 10 hours after two vendors alerted police to the suspicious vehicle, which contained three propane tanks, fireworks, two filled five-gallon petrol containers and two clocks with batteries, electrical wire and other components, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said.

"We avoided what could have been a very deadly event," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said. "It certainly could have exploded and had a pretty big fire and a decent amount of explosive impact."

The bomb appeared to be starting to detonate but malfunctioned, top police spokesman Paul Browne said. Firefighters and witnesses said they heard a popping sound from inside the vehicle.

Bloomberg called the explosive device "amateurish" but potentially deadly, noting: "We are very lucky."

The NYPD bomb squad "has seen sophisticated devices before and they described this one as crude", Browne said. "But it was nevertheless lethal."

If detonated properly, it could have created a large fireball and sprayed shrapnel that could have killed pedestrians in the immediate vicinity, Browne added.

"I think the intent was to cause a significant ball of fire," Kelly said.

No-one has been arrested, but Kelly said a surveillance video showed the car driving west on 45th Street before it was parked between Seventh and Eighth avenues. Police were looking for more video from office buildings that weren't open at the time.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said on NBC's Meet the Press that officials are treating the incident as a potential terrorist attack. The mayor said earlier today that "we have no idea who did this or why", but pointed out that the city is a frequent target of terrorism.

"These things invariably ... come back to New York," Bloomberg said.