A New York tale: two men find bag, remove bomb, steal bag

New York City police investigating a bombing in Manhattan over the weekend said on Monday they wanted to question two men who appeared to stumble over a second device made from a pressure cooker that had been left inside a bag lying on a city street.

In a lucky break that helped authorities to thwart a second detonation on Saturday, the men stole the bag after taking out what turned out to be a homemade bomb and leaving it exposed on the pavement on 27th Street.

Police discovered the exposed device soon after a bomb exploded four blocks away on 23rd Street in the Chelsea neighbourhood and left 29 people injured.

The two men, caught on surveillance video footage, are considered potential witnesses, not suspects, in the bombing, said Robert Boyce, chief of detectives for the New York City Police Department.

“They looked like they were two gentlemen just strolling up and down Seventh Avenue at the time. We have no information that would link them to this at all,” Boyce said at a briefing. “However, we still want to talk to them, obviously.”