Parts of Times Square were evacuated this afternoon around 1p.m. as the New York Police Department deployed a robot to an already jittery Times Square to X-ray a cooler that was abandoned in front of the Marriott Marquis hotel near 45th and Broadway.
The results of the initial robot X-ray were inconclusive, so the bomb squad suited up to get a closer look. After about an hour, authorities determined the cooler contained water bottles. A short time later, a suspicious truck was investigated a few blocks away in Midtown’s Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood. That incident was also declared a false alarm.
After last week’s arrest of Faisal Shahzad, the suspected terrorist who attempted to leave the country after planting a car bomb in Times Square which failed to detonate, Mayor Bloomberg issued a statement, saying, “”We have to take every precaution, as you know, because we remain a prime target for terrorists,” he said. “That’s something all New Yorkers understand and it’s something that we need Washington to understand as well.”
“We will continue to doing everything we possibly can to protect New Yorkers from terrorist attacks. We have, as you know, built the most comprehensive and sophisticated counter terrorism operation of any local police force in the world.”
Watch CNN video coverage of the bomb scare below: