Thread: Times Square Shut Down- Suspicious package

Updated May 07, 2010
NYPD Investigating Suspicious Package in Times Square

FOXNews.com

URGENT: Police have closed off four blocks in Times Square and are X-raying a suspicious package left on a sidewalk just a block from where a bomb-laden was SUV was parked Saturday night in a botched terrorist attack.

Police have closed off the area "in an abundance of caution," looking into whether the object -- a small, white cooler -- was abandoned by someone, NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said.

No evacuations have been ordered from buildings, but workers were told to stay indoors as police shut down the main pedestrian artery in the heart of New York City from 43rd to 47th Streets.

Fox News reporters saw the bomb squad suiting up in preparation to investigate the cooler, as Fire Department teams joined the NYPD on the scene.

Police cordoned off the area with yellow tape while yelling "Get back, get back" at onlookers and guiding bomb-sniffing dogs through the area. Cars approaching the area were told to turn back as an eerie silence descended on the area.

Police found the cooler outside the Marriott Marquis Times Square hotel, near the intersection of 45th Street and Broadway, and have closed 7th Avenue and Broadway to traffic in the four blocks surrounding the area. Pedestrians were being ferried along on 47th Street to avoid overcrowding.

Security has been heightened in the city since 30-year-old Faisal Shahzad allegedly parked a crude, homemade carbomb made of gasoline, propane, fertilizer and fireworks. The bomb failed to explode, and no one was harmed in the incident.

Since the botched attack in Times Square the number of suspicious package calls to the police have shot up by nearly a third, the Wall Street Journal reported. Between Sunday and Wednesday, police checked out 493 suspicious packages, compared with 381 in the same period last year.

This is a developing story. Refresh the page for more updates.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/05/07/ny ... es-square/

They have re-opened TIMES SQUARE