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All-clear given in Times Square scare
Police have blocked off parts of Times Square and evacuated people because of a suspicious cooler left in Times Square.
[Updated at 6:06 p.m.] Read the full CNN.com story
[Updated at 2:32 p.m.] Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York acknowledged after that incident that terrorists have targeted New York.
"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."
[Updated at 2:24 p.m.] An all-clear was declared Friday after authorities investigated a suspicious package left in front of a hotel in Times Square and determined that it contained water bottles, police said.
[Updated at 2:10 p.m.] The New York Police Department has deployed a robot to X-ray the cooler that was abandoned in front of the Marriott Marquis hotel in Times Square, police told CNN's Susan Candiotti.
[Updated at 2:15 p.m.] A bomb squad robot has completed its X-ray of the suspicious cooler left in Times Square, CNN's Susan Candiotti reported. But, the results were inconclusive.
Members of the bomb squad are now suiting up to get a closer look.
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[Updated at 2:01 p.m.] CNN's Ali Velshi who is on 47th Street and Broadway reports: "Times Square is entirely empty" on certain blocks.
[Updated at 1:58 p.m.] Kathy Duffy, who is in her office at the Marriott Marquis hotel, told CNN the Times Square Alliance said there was an abandoned cooler left outside. Duffy said officials told her that the bomb squad was trying to determine if it was a threat. She said that the hotel has not been told to evacuate.
[Updated at 1:51 p.m.] A spokesman for the Times Square Alliance says, according to the NYPD, the following streets are closed:
- East bound on 46th Street from 8th Ave
- West bound on 45th Street from 6th Ave.
- And the Broadway and 7th Avenue plaza between 44th and 47th.
- 44th and 47th Streets themselves are not closed.
[Updated at 1:45 p.m.] The suspicious package that prompted evacuations in New York's Times Square is a white cooler that was left near the front of the Marriott Marquis Hotel, police told CNN.
The area is not far from where Faisal Shahzad left his SUV that had explosives in it.
People were evacuated from the streets of Times Square after a report of a suspicious package.
[Posted at 1:24 p.m.] Times Square has been evacuated after a suspicious package was found near 45th street, a New York Police Department official said.
The package was found near 45th Street and Broadway, officials said.
The evacuation comes six days after an SUV with explosives was left in Times Square resulting in the arrest of Faisal Shahzad.
This story is developing. We'll bring you the latest information as we get it.
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" hey Boo Boo, where's that cooler I took from the pick-a-nickers?" -Yogi
BUM BUM BEDA BUM BUM BEDUM
I hope all the beer in that cooler doesn't wind up getting thrown out. There are despirate people who could use it!
Time Square will remain closed for as long as it takes the cops to drink the beer in the cooler.
Probably a vendor's cooler filled with cold water bottles for sale.
Perhaps but what are you supposed to do in a situation like this? I mean with times the way they are the one time you dismiss it as just an abandoned car or and abandoned cooler it could actually be something.
Seems like an over reaction but remember, the last bomb was called a "diversion". Maybe to make us less likely to react to the next threat. Like a rope-a-dope!
First someone leaves a U Haul on a bridge...it was nothnig and it makes news...now a COOLER?! Please...I hope I don't ever leave a soda can on a bench.
definitely paranoia..seriously, a cooler? i hope terrorists aren't that dumb. then again we're in good company if they are, if coolers are all we have to worry about.
Fact Is this is typical for americans it IS A COOLER!!!!!! who cares get a life and get your heads out of the sand.
why would bush kill kenny
I got dibbs on the apple! You can fight over the chicken salad sandwich.
And if it turned out there was a bomb it that cooler, and it exploded and killed X number of people and they Didn't evacuate, then all you people would be would be blaming the government for not doing enough. Can't ever make everyone happy.
Spare me the New Yorkers who are whining"Everything happens to us." It's the rest of us who have to pay for your paranoia. When you have finally rebuilt something on Ground Zero instead of fighting over what is built there, call me. Or perhaps you prefer to play the eternal martyr like those who have milked the Holocaust for 60 years. Only when we hold "them" to the same rules as the rest of the world will we move toward peace.
paranoia, Big time this is how the terrorist take our freedom from us. I am not going to stop living my life or live paranoid because of terrorism or bomb scares. Wow look every body there is a dog turd on the ground it could be explosive RUN!!!!!AHHHHHHAHHHHH.