Police search for suspect in failed NYC bombing

The bomb at the heart of a failed terror attack in Times Square contained fertilizer that was incapable of exploding, according to New York City police.

Unlike the ammonium nitrate grade fertilizer that has been used in attacks such as the Oklahoma City bombing, the substance utilized in Saturday's attempted car bombing would not have triggered a substantial explosion, police spokesman Paul Browne said.

Police have yet to determine exactly what was in the homemade bomb, which officials have described as "amateurish," but not without danger.

New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said Sunday afternoon there is no evidence to link the failed attack to the Taliban.

Kelly said police are on their way to a Pennsylvania town to speak with a person who may have videotaped a suspect. Kelly said the person got a picture of a white man in his 40s, who was taking off his shirt in an alley and putting it in a bag.

"The intent of whoever did this (was) to cause mayhem, create casualties," Kelly said. He added that New York is still "clearly a target of people who want to come here and do us harm."

The head of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, said that while the incident was clearly meant as an act of terrorism, it appears to have been a one-off attack and not part of a wider plot.

The normally bustling neighbourhood was devoid of pedestrians for 10 hours while the bomb, which was hidden inside a Nissan Pathfinder, was dismantled.

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

As the bomb was dismantled, police found three propane tanks, fireworks, two 19-litre gasoline containers and two clocks with batteries, electrical wire and other parts, Kelly said.

Police also found a gun locker, which was detonated at another location. It contained eight containers of an "unknown substance."

While Bloomberg described the bomb as "amateurish," Kelly said it could have caused considerable damage despite being made of consumer-grade fireworks.

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

Vendor sounded the alarm

The incident began around 6:30 p.m. Saturday when a T-shirt vendor alerted police to smoke that was pouring out of the back of the SUV.

According to Rallis Gialaboukis, a vendor who for 20 years has worked across the street from where the bomb was located, the vehicle's hazard lights were on as smoke billowed out the back. "It was just sitting there," he said.

New York Fire Department Commissioner Sal Cassano said firefighters who arrived on scene shortly after being called heard a popping sound from the car. A police said it appeared the bomb had started to detonate but malfunctioned.

Kelly said police are studying surveillance video from the scene, including footage that shows the SUV travelling westbound on 45th Street before it parks between Seventh and Eighth Avenues.

Police checked the vehicle's Connecticut licence plate but said it did not match the Pathfinder. The plate's owner told police he had sent the plate to a junkyard, Bloomberg said.

Police said they are scouring through video footage of at least 82 cameras in the area.

Bomb scare seen as tourist attraction

The scare led police to shut down the block of 45th Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues where the car was parked. Seven theatres are in that one block, and shows such as "God of Carnage" and "Red" opened a half-hour later than scheduled, according to spokesperson Adrian Bryan-Brown.

Stephanie Sy of ABC News said Sunday that many pedestrians in Times Square treated the incident "more as a spectacle than as anything really scary."

"People lined the streets where the cordons were and they were taking pictures as if it was a tourist attraction," Sy told CTV News Channel in a telephone interview. "They weren't exactly running for cover."

The incident is reminiscent of a similar occurrence in Times Square last December, when a van without license plates set off an investigation that caused police to cordon off the area for two hours. A bomb-detection robot searched the van, but no explosives were found.

Several law enforcement agencies will assist the NYPD as they investigate the incident, including the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force. U.S. President Barack Obama has also directed John Brennan, his homeland security and counterterrorism adviser, to work with New York officials.

"We have no idea who did this or why," Bloomberg said. "These things invariably ... come back to New York."

A "shockwave of insecurity"

Michel Juneau-Katsuya, a former senior intelligence analyst with the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, said the perpetrators had succeeded to an extent, even though the bomb didn't fully detonate.

"This will send a shockwave of insecurity, it will put the authorities on the edge," he told CTV News Channel.

Investigators may have a wealth of evidence to work with, he said, because the bomb and the truck in which it was housed remain intact.

The perpetrators may have been members of a domestic militia group, Juneau-Katsuya suggested. One such group was dismantled in the U.S. less than a month ago, and the bombing could represent a reprisal for that.

"Ultimately, we might have to look at this form of homegrown terrorism that exists in the U.S.," he said.

With files from CTV Washington Bureau Chief Paul Workman and The Associated Press