The Times Square car bomb “would have caused a significant fireball” and casualties had it successfully detonated, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said at a news conference Sunday.
The extent of the damage that the bomb could have caused was still unclear Sunday evening, as police were trying to figure out what the substance was that was packed inside a gun locker in the car near propane and gasoline tanks. Kelly said the substance had the look and feel of fertilizer.
Damage from a detonation likely would have come in stages.
First, there would have been casualties in the area around the car. Kelly said the explosion of the gun box, which also contained firecrackers and wires, would have sent shrapnel flying through the air.
Then, it’s possible that the burning Nissan Pathfinder might have ignited other parked cars and possibly their gas tanks, said Maria Haberfeld, a professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice and former lieutenant in Israel’s national police force.
The explosions would likely create panic, Haberfeld said, sending pedestrians and vehicles scrambling to get out of Times Square. People could have gotten trampled and pushed under cars.
“You’re not talking about some remote place in Montana,” Haberfeld said. “You’re talking about one of the most densely populated places in the country.”
Fear and economic damage would have followed the physical devastation wrought by the bomb.
“There is a potential for a quite sensational event,” Haberfeld said. “It’s not necessarily the severity of casualties but the effect it creates.”