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NEW YORK, May 6 (Xinhuanet) -- New York police said
Friday surveillance tapes from Midtown Manhattan showed at least three people
were in the area of the British Consulate at the time of Thursday morning' s
blasts, and asked these eye witnesses to come forward.
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said police so far
still have no suspects and have not determined a motive, but he noted that
images from 17 security cameras showed a female jogger, a bicyclist and a taxi
in the area when two makeshift grenades went off.
"We just ask anyone with information who was in the
vicinity ...you know, this is New York, and it's 3:30 in the morning, yet there
were still people out on the street, so we ask anyone who was out there who has
any information to come forward," Kelly said.
Kelly also said one tape has raised the possibility
that one ofthe grenades may have been thrown from across the street and not
placed in a planter as they first thought, but the police are enhancing the
video for better clues.
The two clumsily converted grenades blew out a glass
panel at the building's entrance, but caused no injuries. Police said the
novelty grenades were filled with black gunpowder, fixed with a fuse and left in
the planter in front of the building.
An Islamic extremist group claimed responsibility
after the blast, but investigators are skeptical because the group's past claims
have not been confirmed, according to some media reports.
Police are trying to determine if other tenants in
the buildingbesides the British consulate could have been targets.
Kelly noted that last month Jewish activists
demonstrated against another tenant in the building, a board member of
Caterpillar Inc., over the bulldozing of Palestinian homes. In response, a
sponsor of the rally called Jewish Voice for Peace, said the group "only engages
in nonviolent activities, period."
Earlier, a United Nations analyst from the
Netherlands was detained for questioning after he allegedly ignored an officer's
order to stay out of the crime scene. The man was later released.
The explosions went off just as Britons went to
participate in a national election. But police said they could not establish at
this stage any link between the election and the blasts.
Philip Thomas, the British counsul-general in New
York, also said he could not speculate on "who this bomb was aimed at, whether
it was us or someone else." Enditem
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