New York City explosion injures 29 people, believed to be an ‘intentional act’

A homemade bomb shook the Chelsea neighborhood of New York Saturday night, injuring 29 people.

{mosads}The explosion occurred at about 8:30 p.m. on 23rd Street between Sixth and Seventh avenues in New York City.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio held a press conference with the NYPD just after 11:15 p.m. and said there was “no evidence at this point of a terror connection to the incident.” 

But de Blasio noted that “early indications was that this was an intentional act.”

“We know it was a very serious incident, but we have a lot more work to do to be able to say what kind of motivation was behind this,” de Blasio told reporters Sunday. “Was it a political motivation? Was it a personal motivation? We do not know that yet.”

NYPD Commissioner James O’Neill said 29 people were hurt with non life-threatening injuries. All had been released from the hospital by Sunday morning.

The bomb was made of a pressure cooker filled with shrapnel and was connected to a cell phone, according to the New York Times. 

A second similar device was found nearby and failed to detonate.

Senior law enforcement officials told the Times that they had a “person of interest” in the investigation. 

It’s still unclear if the attack is tied to planted pipe bombs in New Jersey. One of three bombs tied together detonated, the Times reported, and there were no injuries. 

No group has claimed responsibility. But a media site linked to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) called a man who stabbed nine people in Minnesota on Sunday “a soldier of the Islamic State.”