Explosion at British consulate in New York

Thursday, 5 May 2005 12:00 AM

The Foreign Office is investigating reports of an explosion outside the British consulate in New York.

The explosion occurred at 0335 local time (0835 BST), shattering the building's front windows; but there are no reports of casualties.

New York mayor Michael Bloomberg reassured New Yorkers reminded of the last time an explosion hit the city, on 11 September 2001, that the situation was under control.

He said two "relatively unsophisticated devices" had been used, adding: "Clearly this kind of thing is something we are all concerned about but my advice is to go about your lives."

Police commissioner Raymond Kelly said the "improvised explosive devices" had been embedded in one of the 12 concrete flower boxes that form a barrier outside the Third Avenue building.

What he described as a "novelty grenade" was filled with white powder and detonated by hand, not by a timing device.

Fragments of the two small but not identical devices were found up to half a block away.

"We have no known motive of this action at this time," commander Kelly told reporters, confirming that no threats had been received before or after the explosion, on this or other consulates in New York city.

"Police dogs searched for secondary devices but none were found. Sweeps of various diplomatic locations returned negative results."

Britain's diplomatic representatives abroad have also been targeted before - in November 2003, the consulate general in Istanbul was devastated by a suicide bomb attack.

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