Failed car bomb discovered in Times Square

Police evacuated the heart of the packed Times Square area of New York late Saturday on suspicion that a parked vehicle contained a bomb -- and discovered explosive equipment in a Nissan Pathfinder left in the area.

The car was at 45th Street and 7th Avenue and police shut down streets on either side of the incident, blocking an area thronged with tourists and theatergoers in the Broadway district.

The New York Times has more:

“It appears to be a car bomb left in a Pathfinder between Seventh and Eighth” Avenues on 45th Street, said Deputy Commissioner Paul J. Browne, the Police Department’s chief spokesman.

The device, he said, contained “explosive elements” that included “propane tanks, some kind of powder, gasoline and a timing device.”

“This is very much an active investigation,” he said.

Mr. Browne, speaking shortly before 1 a.m. Sunday, said that he did not believe anyone was in custody. “We haven’t identified any kind of a motive,” he said. “It appears to be a car bomb, but we haven’t attached a motive to it."

Adds Reuters:

A police source who asked not to be named said the device was a car bomb and it included three tanks of propane and two canisters of gasoline. He said police had not fully cleared the Pathfinder.

He would not say whether the incident was being treated as an act of terrorism.

A New York Fire Department officer told Reuters the vehicle was found to contain explosives, gasoline, propane and burned wires and was being treated as a "failed device."

Read the latest on this developing story here.