23 of them we understand to be minor injuries. that is the good part of the news. no fatalities from that explosion as of yet. the cause of the explosion, that is unknown. as you were hearing from jose diaz balart, it is still an active scene. this garbage dumpster on the left-hand side. brian williams learning that this code on the left-hand side could indicate that it is related to a business, and that could therefore mean potentially it is related to a construction site. we do not know the relationship of this particular dumpster on the left-hand side, whether it is, if you will, a commercial dumpster or a construction dumpster or any other sort of distinction that can be made, but clearly this is a piece of

information that will be looked into. we also have learned within the last 30 minutes that this is now involving federal officials. atf is involved. fbi is involved. these pieces are speaking with local law enforcement, with nypd, and fdny. this is not necessarily out of -- this is not necessarily uncommon based on this is new york city. this is manhattan. although the backdrop to all of this is that next week president obama will be here in manhattan. this at the united nations for the 71st gathering of unga, as they call the united nations and the general assembly. the activity still happening on the left-hand side. just about 20, 25 minutes ago, we did see a gurney move through that very microphone area on the left-hand screen underneath the

yellow taped portion that's sitting in the backdrop there. the streets for the most part, from what we have been hearing from our reporters, jose diaz balart, including him saying that the streets are fairly open, but with law enforcement vehicles and the sidewalks still with residents. i think we still have our terror analyst malcolm nance with us. as we look at this here, malcolm, you were mentioning earlier that you were getting reporting, something we don't have as of yet, four pipe bombs. we were showing the picture on the left-hand side before that garbage dumpster. the question is was it just merely construction materials, was it some sort of test, as jim cavanaugh said, could be a test of an explosive device, or could it have been some sort of pipe

bomb. of course, we want it to be the first, as brian williams was saying. we want it to be inopportune construction material and construction material went off and this was not something calculated. when you look at that picture, what do you make of it? >> well, it is new york city. a lot of construction happens. i would love for it to be a construction device, something like a propane tank or acetylene tank that detonated. when you look at this spot -- and i've been watching this spot since the incident occurred on google earth from last june, you can still see the containers out there near the construction site underneath the cording that's protecting the area. something clearly went inside it and exploded.

that is a rolling trash container. it's in the like a small street corner container, and it's been mangled. a device has either been put in there or some form of explosion, whether it was compressed gas or something else, was in there. jim cavanaugh made a presentation about all the agencies that are combing over the th this and are going to make the final determination on this. if it was an ied, that's an improvised explosive device or a pipe bomb or a cluster of pipe bombs or any other type of explosive that someone has placed deliberately in that container, then it could have been for demonstration purposes to show people that that individual has the power of creating this device.

it could have been testing and research purposes, even mad bombers do testing of their devices like jim cavanaugh said. and he just needed a place to do it, threw it in that container. i'd like to make another point. most people that were injured tonight were injured in the evacuation. that explosion took place under an arc of trees, underneath hoarding in front of a construction zone. it looks like it would have been relatively well contained. for the most part, when the mayor comes out with nypd and they do their debrief, they will be able to give us a lot more information on this. >> and just to that point here, malcolm, for instance, when i was in paris, we had a reported explosion that happened or a reported individual with a firearm. then people started to run. that is certainly a possibility that the injuries that are related to this are those tripping upon others as they were trying to escape or leave the environment of what was that reported explosion.

of course, we don't know the answers or confirmation to any of this data as of yet, but just speaking to the point that you're making. now going back to the construction materials and the construction site scenario, if you will, in some of the still pictures that you're seeing on the right-hand side, for those who are not from the manhattan area, construction sites in manhattan are a little bit different than they are in other parts of the country. if you can see -- what's in these pictures are basically stilts because the sidewalks are so skinny that they have these raised platforms that exist above the very sidewalks themselves so the construction workers do have areas, if you will, to ingress, egress materials as well as -- i think you can see in this picture here in the background. from the pictures that you and i have been able to see, if these are close to or indicative of

the location of the reported explosion, it would be consistent with this question right now is this explosion related to construction materials or a construction site. again, we don't know the answer to that as of yet. we're just trying to piece together the pieces of information that are available to us not only visually, but also coming from officials. and just going to that for a second here, malcolm, we're hearing from jonathan dienst still no solid answer as to what caused this explosion. no confirmation from the trusted sources of the nypd, the fdny, and other city officials, but we expect to very shortly -- i believe a live picture is in the lower right-hand corner of your screen right now.

we expect to hear from mayor bill de blasio as well as the police commissioner. that's james o'neal. today being his first full day of work. so malcolm, as you mentioned, we're trying to piece together all of the available data to us. those cameras that were set up on many of the corners in manhattan post-9/11. we remember how important they've been in previous questions of explosions or potential ieds in manhattan, and we can look to london where they've got over 20,000 cameras for instance in their streets, i believe, or in that realm of order of number. how key will those pieces of video be to us understanding what happened? >> they're going to be very, very critical.

one of the first things you do when you have an incident and you believe it's a critical incident and there may have been an act of terror, not only do you go in there and secure the location physically, you're going to have an intelligence team whose first job it is to go and do a complete clean up of all the visual and camera media that can come from that area. you throw sort of like a proverbial ring of surveillance. you would immediately go out and identify every camera in that area. what you want to do is run it back to the time of the explosion and just see, number one, the environment. what was the environment two minutes before the explosion. what was the environment one minute before the incident, and then at the time of the incident. you're going to mark every individual that's in that area. now that's a lot of data and that's a lot of work. new york city has one of the preeminent law enforcement intelligence agencies in the united states, if not the world, and they have the resources to

do that. it's not just the cameras on the intersections either. right across the street from that there are several large businesses, including a large bike shop all of which would have cameras inside the stores and around the perimeter of stores, looking right at that construction site and down the street. they're going to have a very solid, multidimensional image of what's going on at the time of the accident, and we'll see if it is construction related or something more nefarious. >> malcolm, what was noted by brian williams as well as the reports coming in, are the types of injuries and the way they

gra gradate them. >> the triage color code is used. unfortunately, i had to use it on 9/11 and when i was in the military. green are people who are get up and are mobile. in this instance it would be somebody who may have been tripped or fallen while evacuating, but they got a scrape. you triage them as last report. condition yellow, these are people who are injuries which makes them immobile or in such a way they're in an increasing level of pain and still foot mobile. condition red is someone who is critically injured who has to go to immediate transport. then you have condition black, which is passed on. right now all of these injuries are probably related to the evacuation and maybe someone was

injured in the initial blast. we don't know that right now. none of them are life threatening, as we've heard. that's a very sleepily street on a saturday evening. i actually know that street. let me talk a little bit about the targets hearing. if this is an act of terror or someone who wanted to test a device or whatever, there is a process in which the targets are selected. instead of going to madison square park and the flat iron building one block further down where there would be a lot more people, this incident occurred one and a half blocks, almost two blocks away from that on a street that's relatively benign in the middle of the evening. >> malcolm, stand by. i want to go to lester holt who at the location of the video, of the picture that you see on the left-hand side of your screen, and that is news briefing that we are waiting for. lester, what are you hearing in

terms of who will be coming to the microphones and when they might be there? >> stand by. i'm just getting word that nypd is tweeting out that a possible second device at 27th. that's another -- 27th and 7th avenue. that's a few blocks away. we're set up around 23rd and 5th awaiting this news conference with the brand-new new york city police commissioner. we believe it is either his first or second day on the job, but again they have been looking for secondary devices. if it's 27th and 7th, that would be outside the area that was originally shut down. i actually boarded a subway train at the intersection of the initial attack about an hour and a half before it happened, was walking back up from greenwich village when we heard all of the activity. i did not hear the explosion. keep in mind, a lot of these

police units here have been assigned and/or are assigned to the u.n. general assembly in new york this coming week, so there was already a robust anti-terror presence in the city going into this weekend, but we're expecting mayor de blasio and the new police commissioner. this new information that there may be a second device that has been found is certainly more than alarming. we don't see any additional activity here. we are waiting -- you can't see me. i'm at the bottom of this scrum here below the microphones waiting for this news conference to begin. again, there is the possibility of a second device found at 27th and 7th. that would be one long avenue block west of where the initial device was found and a couple of blocks north, shorter blocks north, all in the chelsea area. we have talked to some people who heard the initial explosion. one person said it didn't sound

like a pipe bomb. it sounded like something much larger. we heard reports of a vehicle that may have had its windows shattered. none of the injuries said to be life threatening. i saw several ambulances a few blocks from here. there appeared to be one person who was conscious and alert. there was no sign of his actual injury, but we saw several ambulances leaving the scene here. obviously a major medical response here. i'll send it back to you in the studio as we await this news conference. >> lester holt there on scene. he is waiting for that news conference to start at any minute right now and really describing the sense of what is happening right now. reporting again what we're hering from t-- hearing from th new york police department

tweeting out a possible secondary device has been located at 27th street between 6th and 7th avenues. the new york police department now looking into that. that is new this hour if you're just joining us. 11:15 local time here. we're just getting that piece of news that lester holt was reporting. a potential secondary device. we may get that piece of information when this news briefing begins. it looks like officials are walking over very soon. the first explosion, the report of it, happening at 8:30 p.m. that's almost three hours ago and not too far, about what we understand to be four streets away, from this second device. that's what's new. we have the first one reported at 8:30. there is potentially a second device they're looking into

right now. we don't many other details on that. there were 26 injured, 23 had minor injuries. no fatalities. that's the underline right now. what we're learning just within the last 15 minutes or so is that subway trains, which were averted from that 23rd street area are now fully operational. all trains are moving. all subways are operating as they would on any other saturday evening in this location. a bustling part of manhattan. a very dense place. on a workday, manhattan has upwards of potentially 4 million people in this 20-plus square mile area. on a normal day, 1.5 million individuals. this was a packed area, even at 8:30 p.m. certainly on a saturday night. it's fall-like weather.

many individuals, many people, family and friends, couples out enjoying this fall evening, perhaps grabbing a meal heading home from one as well. as we wait for this news briefing, that is the latest that we're hearing. federal officials now involved also in what is happening along with the nypd and the fire department of new york city. also atf brought in. josh, my producer, is close to this location of this reported potential second device. we're just getting this information from the new york police department, their special ops department, saying they're looking into this. what are you seeing happening from where you're at? you're close to that location. >> i am very close to the location. i'm twaactually just one block

away. they're trying to get people away from this intersection of 26th and 7th avenue. there are now first responders coming to the scene. they have everything gated off. for a while, it is expected something could be unfolding here because they're not allowing anybody into the area. i'm seeing residents that may reside in these buildings being denied entry into it, period, regardless if they live there or not. this is happening so, so close to where the first blast was reported. it is just a sea of red as you look down 6th and 7th avenues right now, but this is definitely unfolding. you can see people arriving to the scene. in terms of any activity, any sort of smoke, nothing like that. >> josh, i want you to stand by. we now have mayor bill de blasio about to speak. we also have the police commissioner by his side. let's listen in. >> i want to go over a couple of

key points. then you're going to hear from nypd commissioner james o'neal, fire commissioner. we'll be joined momentarily by fbi assistant director bill sweeney. tonight, new york city experienced a very serious incident. all elements of our first responders have been a part of the operation here, nypd, fdny, office of emergency management, our federal partners, fbi and others working with us, so all hands are on deck. injuries are significant. you'll hear from the commissioner on the details of the injuries. but at this point, we can confirm that none of those injured are likely to die. we also want to be upfront saying that there is no evidence at this point of a terror connection to this incident. this is preliminary information.

it's something we will be investigating very carefully, but there is no evidence at this point of a terror connection. i also want to affirm that based on what we know at this hour there is no specific connection to the incident in new jersey. it is again too early to say anything definitive on those questions, but there's no specific evidence of a connection at this point. i want to say more broadly there is no specific and credible threat against new york city at this point in time from any terror organization. so as we are analyzing what happened here, we are doing against the backdrop that we have no credible and specific threat at this moment. but we do want to be very clear. the early indications are this was an intentional act. we have a lot to say in the coming hours as we have more detailed analysis, but we believe at this moment in time this was an intentional act. i want to assure all new yorkers

that the nypd and all other agencies are at full alert and that our anti-terror capacity in particular is at full alert, our critical response command, and our other key units, our strategic response group, our emergency services unit, all are on alert and all are dealing with this situation and being vigilant all over the city at this point in time. and we have in this city the most advanced anti-terror capacity of any city in this country and obviously the largest police force of any city in the country all ready to ensure our safety. whatever the cause, whatever the intention here, new yorkers will not be intimidated. we're not going to let anyone change who we are or how we go about our lives, and we have the best police force in the country and a number of other key agencies, fdny, et cetera, making sure we will be safe. we are at this point, of course,

tracing every lead and every potential. it's too early to give you any details of the investigation because it has just begun over the last few hours. i want to say upfront we're not going to go into a lot of detail about what we're finding so far in the investigation. that will take certainly more hours before we can give you more, but we do want to urge all new yorkers, anyone who may have information related to this incident, anyone who was an eyewitness, anyone who may have video, the nypd needs that. please reach out immediately if you have any information that we can use. call 1-800-577-tips. 1-800-577-tips if you have any pertinent information. finally, a second site as we speak is being treated by the nypd. it is 27th street between 6th and 7th avenues. there's an investigation under way and a substantial nypd

presence on that street. and that street has been cleared as this investigation continues. with that, i want to turn it over to commissioner james o'neal. >> thank you, mr. mayor. at approximately 8:30 this evening, officers from the tenth precinct were on patrol driving westbound on west 23rd street when they witnessed a large explosion in front of 131 west 23rd street. the officers immediately called for additional units and ambulances. the nypd bomb squad and the fbi joint terrorist task force were requested to respond. as of this time, the exact cause of the explosion has not been determined. >> has or has not? >> the investigation into this event is active and at this time an extensive search is being

conducted. as the mayor spoke, there's an ongoing situation on 27th street right now. the area around the explosion site is being treated as a crime scene. as of this time, there is no evidence to indicate that this explosion is the result of any natural gas cause. again, the exact nature and cause of this explosion has not yet been determined. as of the most recent information, there have been to 29 injuries reported. one of these may be serious. the fire department is currently assessing the extent of any structural damage resulting from this explosion. as further information is developed, we'll provide it and give you updates. >> our units heard this actually from their locations and joined

the nypd members on the scene to search the buildings that were affected. as commissioner o'neal said, there were 29 injuries here. one considered serious. 24 of these people have been transported to area hospitals with various degrees of scrapes, abrasions, from glass, from metal. thankfully none of these are life threatening injuries and the 24 patients that have been removed are not in a serious condition other than one patient with a puncture. >> thank you very much, commissioner. we'll take your questions now. >> was there a bomb in a dumpster, mr. mayor? >> again, it is too early to determine specifically what the incident was caused by. we believe it was intentional. a full investigation is under way. as soon as we're able to determine what specifically caused this explosion we're going to report that to you.

>> you said that you don't believe at this point that there's a connection to terror. can you elaborate on what makes you think that? >> i'm going to stay broad on that point and commissioner o'neal will jump in at any point. because we have no credible threat or anything at this site linking. we want to assure new yorkers based on what we know at this moment we do not see a link to terrorism. it's an ongoing investigation. >> do you see a link as to the timing of the u.n. general assembly? >> too early. >> right now, preliminarily it appears that the explosion was outside on the street. if anyone has -- hold on one

second. right now, it appears that the explosion took place outside on the street. if anybody's got information, they need to call 1-800-577-tips. >> hold on. >> commissioner, you have this on video. what does the surveillance video show you and how does it inform what you're telling us this evening? >> we have video and we see the explosion. we're going to use that to help us in our investigation. >> are people still evacuated from their buildings? are people allowed back in? >> there's no need to evacuate anybody from that building. we do have traffic. we do have streets closed from 14th to 32nd street, from 5th to 8th, and that's for traffic reasons. >> what about the second possibly ied that was found on 27th street? >> we're still investigating that right now. >> it was an ied, though? >> can you talk about the

surveillance video? can you talk about who you may have seen walking near the explosion? >> at this point, we're not. we're in the process of collecting more video. >> right here, right here. >> is there any evidence that it was an ied? >> you're going to have to speak up a little bit. >> is there any evidence that it was an ied? >> we haven't said that. so far at this point in the investigation it wasn't caused by natural gas. we do think it was an intentional act, but this is all part of the investigation. >> right here. right here. hold on. >> pipe bombs like the one in new jersey? >> it's too early to tell in the investigation. this happened less than three hours ago. >> i have reports of a suspect being questioned around 22nd street. can you report if anybody has been arrested? >> as far as i know, no ly invee

secondary device. >> what kind of object did you dete detect, witness, see, or find? >> we're not going to talk about this at this time. >> that seemed that would have been outside the area you initially secured, so what's the assessment of the overall area? are these three corners clear? >> that's the process. we have the initial location and part of what we do is we look for secondary devices. we start with the incident happens. we move north, south, east, and west. >> and that is still happening? >> yes, it is. >> one more question. we'll come back and update. you right here. >> we spoke to that. we spoke to that. >> was it a trash can, a dumpster? what actually exploded? >> we're still in the process of trying to figure out where the initial explosion was. >> we'll be back to update you soon. >> we'll be back to update you.

we'll be back to update you. >> there you heard it. the amount of information provided indicative of the stage of this investigation. we had the fire commissioner. we also had the police commissioner and the mayor of new york city all speaking. the key takeaways from the 20 minutes of data is there is at this moment no credible or specific information that shows there is a terror connection, no credible or specific information that is coming from mayor de blasio that is related to an incident that happened in new jersey earlier today and that he was quick to make those two points. also, the number of injuries, what is new this hour is now we're hearing there are 29 injured, and none of them, they believe, will result in a fatality. that is the good news, although

mayor de blasio did say that one of those injuries was more than minor. this is the pieces of information that have come in so far. of note, jim cavanaugh still with us. we have all these pieces of information. they're basically saying in so many words as much as they can tell us without revealing the process here, jim, that the information related to this investigation so far it does not show that it is of, if you will, high alert. however, there is the question of this being intentional. that's what they said. it was an intentional act. what do you make of the amount of data that they gave to us in this news briefing, jim? >> the way they come about that, the bomb investigators, it is basically from the other angle. we call it a negative corpus. what they're coming around and

saying is we've eliminated a gas leak. we've eliminated an accidental thing at the building, a transformer, an electrical box, any kind of obvious accidental we have eliminated. like lightning striking a dumpster. all these things are eliminated. yet this dumpster either inside or immediately outside exploded. that's why it was an intentional act. they don't seem to have their answer of exactly what it was made of. the commissioner said it was too early to tell if it was the container. a pipe is just a container for the bomb or the explosive materials sometimes. it's not indicative of what the explosive filler is. you could have something as simple as a pyrotei pyrotechnic

round. it would reverberate, it would mangle the dumpster, and hurt people. it would be something that somebody threw in there. they don't have all those answers yet. they're trying to put that together. they're not exactly sure, but they're pretty sure it's not accidental. now they've got to find out what exactly is it. >> one of the items here also, jim, which was provided by the fire commissioner and very quietly at the end of one of his answers there was a puncture wound related to those who were injured. we also learned they are reviewing video from surveillance cameras and they're still in the process of going through that. comment, if you can, about the puncture wound. secondly, this surveillance video, how long will it take, if you will, for them to go through all of it? >> well, it's probably going to depend on just the cameras that

the police department controls. then it will be cameras that maybe merchants control along the street. some of that may take a little longer, and it is a slow walk going through video. but they'll start to narrow that time. this could be someone who lit a fuse and through a device in there, so it could be pretty close in time to the blast. it doesn't mean it has to have been set on a timer, which is likely similar to the jersey shore bomb. it could have been on a timer, but it could have been on a lit fuse. as far as the fragmentation and injury, that's very consistent when you look at the picture of this trash bin. you can see the metal rolled back. you can see metal rolled back on the bin. so when the explosion occurs, small latches or pieces of metal, the spring on the hinge that holds the top of the dumpster on, any of this stuff could fall off and fly into the face of the fed. that's likely the injury, something flying off the dumpster. >> they have not confirmed for us as of yet this dumpster.

it was an intentional act and an explosion. they'll perhaps give us more specific information about what was related to specifically this garbage dumpster though. been part of the story with us over the last three hours. jim, stand by. thank you for giving us that perspective on the latest data coming from the news briefing. ron allen is at bellevue hospital. you have some new information. we have just learned that the number is now higher in terms of those who were injured. now 29. >> yes, and the mayor called these significant injuries. although they're not life threatening. there are nine patients who were transported to this hospital. it's just down a few blocks from the incident from where the explosion happened in that direction. you can see over there behind me past that taxicab there's a significant police presence here. there's a heavily armed guard at the door here.

at the other entrances of the hospital of 3rd avenue, there's a very heavy police presence. we've seen some ambulances coming during the past hours or so. not sure exactly if those were patients from the scene of the explosion or patients from other places in the city. this is always a very busy hospital, but again a significant police presence here just in case as the incident continues to unfold. we now have a second scene that's being investigated by authorities. hospital officials here tell us that the patients are in stable condition, that they are not life-threatening injuries that they're dealing withwith. the mayor and the fire commissioner said they were cuts and abrasions from flying debris or metal. again, not life threatening. the one victim who has some kind of a puncture wound, we don't think that individual is here because they're saying everyone here is stable.

not life threatening. we'll have more as we get it. we'll bring it to you. again, police here. it's not a very intense posture. they're somewhat relaxed, but still a very heavy guard here that is not the norm at the hospital in new york at a time like this at night. again, they're being very cautious as the events continue to unfold. >> ron, before you go here, give us a sense of the distance of the reported location of the explosion and do we know how many other hospitals might have taken in those who were injured along the way here? >> several area hospitals, but we are at 1st avenue and about 27th. the incident happened five or six blocks in that direction and a couple of blocks down, so a half a mile or so. three quarters of a mile, if that, richard. new york is a very dense area.

when i came up 1st avenue from the lower part of manhattan coming over from brooklyn a couple of hours ago, the traffic was incredible. it took a long time to get over the bridge into the city. that perhaps has eased now that the tension has wound down. we have that second scene at 27th and i think 6th, which is just in that direction about a half a mile or so. again traffic is flowing here now. it was very intense earlier in the evening, but again i think there's still a lot of uncertainty as to exactly what happened, what's happening at that second location. here, the patients are in stable condition and not life thre life-threatening injuries. richard? >> 29 have been injured. the distance, which is very important, is how fast they may have gotten to these locations where they would get medical

assistance. ron, thank you so much for that. lester holt as you may have heard during the news briefing was there, was questioning not only the mayor, but also the commissioners that were there. lester, you were asking about certain corners that were being cleared. >> yeah, richard, they shut down a block around each side of where this happened, but i was just beyond that block. there were trash cans. nothing was searched. i can show you right there. there's one right there. this latest device that found 27th and 7th would be outside the area they originally shut down. the question was then asked is there an alert. there didn't seem to be an alert. was there a terror threat? they seemed to play that down. was there a device? they wouldn't use the word device or bomb. only said an intentional act, so very, very careful with the words. they are treating it as a crime scene. they believe -- they seemed to have ruled out a gas explosion.

it seems to be some nefarious act, but they're being very careful in their wording and they don't seem to be concerned about a wider threat. obviously, they have something that leads them away from that. there are a lot of video cameras in this neighborhood, and apparently they have video evidence. they didn't whether individuals were captured in that video, but they have material that they are working on right now. they would only say the source of the explosion was in the street, not inside a building. as you noted, those who were hurt by flying glass. one person in serious condition with a puncture wound. very curious. there is a stepped up security response in manhattan right now because the u.n. general assembly is to meet this coming week. a lot of dignitaries in town, so all the anti-terror units, the special response group, all at full force because of that. that would be taking place primarily on the east side of manhattan. this is the bustling area where

chelsea meets the flat iron district in new york. i walked by that exact site of the explosion at 23rd and 6th about an hour and a half before it happened. a lot of people on the streets. major subway station there. no reason to believe it wasn't crowded an hour and a half later. the area continues to be sealed off. police continue to look for secondary devices. again, they won't say the word device, but they're looking for other items, i guess, is the best way they put it at 27th and 7th. that is a good quarter mile beyond the site of this initial explosion. i talked to a fellow reporter who has been in war zones who said it sounded bigger than a pipe bomb. other people said they felt the earth shake around them. i was walking up 5th avenue. didn't feel it, didn't hear it, but heard the response and came running. they're being very cagey in how

they characterize this, but the headlines here are of the 29 injuries all but one are considered nonlife threatening. they don't believe there is a terror link. they're looking at a possible suspicious second lotion a half a mile from here. questions were asked about the loti location of the explosion. what else did we learn there? >> the story that was circulating was it was in a wastebasket, but we have not heard that officially. a police cruiser was driving by when this happened and put the call in. the fire department nearby heard it and also responded.

they won't characterize it as a bomb and only that it occurred outside. the subway that runs through there was affected for sometime. there's no reason to believe it happened in the subway itself. i was through there earlier this evening. there was some construction on the tracks, but all seemed normal. >> all seemed normal. we hope it stays that way. lester holt for us reporting on the scene. he was just at the news briefing giving us the very latest information. lester, thank you so much for that. i now want to move to councilman corey johnson. he represents that area where the reported explosion happened as well as this investigation into a second potential area that they're watching very, very closely. councilman, i was listening to you earlier as you were reporting on local channels, and you were right there when this

was happening. give us a sense of what was happening three hours ago when you were there and what's happening right now. >> sure. thank you, richard. i think lester did a great update on where things stand right now. a few hours ago, what i initially saw is i was walking on 23rd street, not on the block where the explosion took place. i was a few blocks west at 23rd street and 9th avenue. it sort of turned into a scene of chaos. the police immediately arrived at the scene. dozens of law enforcement vehicles, dozens of fire engines, and ambulances. when i got the corner of 23rd street and 7th avenue, they were just cordoning the area off. people were gathering. hundreds of new yorkers were standing on the corners

wondering what was going on, and about 25 minutes after that is when an nypd bomb squad vehicle showed up at the scene at 23rd street and 7th avenue. that's when i also saw fbi agents wearing fbi jackets that showed up. they started to create a larger perimeter, so they started to move people farther away. they shut down 7th avenue. they shut down 23rd street. this is the district i represent, and 23rd street is a major crosstown thoroughfare. it runs east and west. this block where the explosion took place is sandwiched in between two subway lanes. the path train wasn't running this weekend because of construction. that block has restaurants.

it's full of residences, and the building it happened in front of is a 210 unit home for the blind. people that are visually impaired. it's a building that is covered in scaffolding. there have been dumpsters out front because it's a building that's been under construction and under renovation for nearly two years. the police moved people away and took control of the scene. i've been around here for a few hours, and things seem relatively -- that's the genesis of what's happened over the past hours that i've been here. >> councilman, keep on your eyewitness hat for a second here. >> sure. >> this area of 23rd between 6th and 7th, tell us, if you can remember, because as a council member, you walk the streets all the time, right? >> yes. >> you know your businesses in this particular district really,

really well. what is that particular part of your district like? between 6th and 7th on 23rd, what is that like? what are the types of businesses? what are the heights of the buildings here? what construction is going on? give us a sense if you were to give us a walking tour of the location of the first explosion. >> 23rd street, because it's a thoroughfare that runs east and west, it's a block that has residences on both sides of the streets. 14-story, 15-story, 16-story buildings with ground floor commercial retail. there's a duncan donuts. there's a citi bank. there's a best buy. there are small restaurants and cafes, clothing stores. that is what you would be experiencing if you were walking on the street level on 23rd

street. this area though, just so folks know, we're sort of ten blocks south of penn station and 20 blocks south of times square. we're just rest of madison square park and the flat iron building. this is a very busy area. it's a warm late summer saturday night in new york, so the streets were bustling with people. this happened around 8:30 p.m. so you have people that are eating out, that are going to clubs, that are going to bars, that are just in the neighborhood. the streets were packed with people. >> and it's one of those streets that's wider because it has the two-way traffic that you were describing, councilman. how much construction is happening in that bit of 23rd street? >> there's not a lot of construction on that block. i could be wrong, but the only building that i can remember and

that i can see from my vantage point both from the 6th avenue side and the 7th avenue side because i was on both sides during the course of tonight, the only building i associated e for the blind. that was the only building i could see that was under construction. it's a building that right now you can't even see the front of the building. the front of the building is being covered with netting. and scaffolding. and there's a bridge that you have to walk under, a scaffolding bridge you have to walk fund you're crossing in front of that building on the same side of the street. so it's not surprising to me that there were construction dumpsters or construction dumpster that was located directly in front of the building, because this is a building that has been undergoing an extensive renovation over the last two years. >> right. again, we were looking at some of the pictures here, councilman, of one of those

intersections where you have the traffic lights and there's a sign that says, blind person's crossing, indicative of the location you're talking about. take off, if you can, for a second, your eyewitness hat. put on your councilman hat. what have you been hearing from other council members, from the mayor and other city officials, about what's happening right now? >> sort of what's happening here right now if. >> correct, in terms what was you're hearing -- >> the police are treating this as a crime scene, you know. the fbi is here as well as the nypd and fdny. they've created a very large perimeter in the neighborhood. again, this is a very residential neighborhood and kind of the middle of lower manhattan. and so right now they're still treating it as an active scene. i've been here so i haven't seep the video of what happened. but while the press conference

was going on, the mayor and the police commissioner indicated that there were reports about, as lester said, another potential device or another potential concern four blocks north of this site on 27th street between sixth and seventh avenues and 27th street between sixth and seventh avenues is a much more residential block. it's a one-way street. it runs east to west. it's a street that has a series of very large, large, 30, 40-story apartment buildings. so that's sort of where we are right now. >> councilman, i know that the cell phone connection may be in and out and our communication a little bit touch and go as we go. i do ask you one final question before we let you go. is there anything unique to this particular part, this particular third district in the way that

you conduct security, the way that you worked with the new york police department, that you are aware of? >> i mean, the answer is no. i mean, i don't have any special information on what the police were looking at in this area. i might say the district i represent covers persnn station madison square garden, times square, columbus circle. it covers some of the busiest parts of manhattan. even though i have 170,000 constituents that live in this district, the average daily population swells to between 1.5 million and 2 million people, given the office buildings and the tourist attractions, the broadway theaters, and there are many, many subway lines used by visitors and new yorkers that run through these neighborhoods. i don't have any special information on the police and what they look at but i know this is an area that's under

heavy surveillance. the last time we've seen an incident of this kind was in times square a few years ago. so we're always on alert. 23rd street between sixth and seventh avenue is not a high-profile block, it's not a block that is symbolic in any way, it's not a block that has any military facilities or any police facilities. it's just a run of the mill residential/commercial block. >> very well said, giving us great context, councilman corey johnson of new york city, thank you so much for giving us that perspective on what this area this crime scene is in the cob text of new york city, of manhattan. very much appreciate that, sir. i want to get to msnbc terror an last malcolm nance, who's been listening to the councilmember's description of this street. it looks like we have some new

video in here on the left-hand side of your screen. not sure if that particular green debris box on the left-hand side, what appears to be a debris box, is the one we're seeing on your upper right-hand corner, the still shot. this video coming in to us of a location, you can see light being shone by one of the law enforcement officials. we'll continue to look at this. this might be the school of the blind that the councilmember was telling us about on the left-hand side of this video. this just coming in, we're feeding it to you directly as we get it. malcolm nance, you may be watching this video with me. you heard what the councilmember was saying here. we're playing it again on the left-hand side. if we look really closely, it does appear that that green block is the same green block on the upper right-hand side, it's tough to tell because the video is moving. i do want to hone in on one thing. and that is that when we heard

from mayor de blasio, he said it is an intentional act. you remember our conversation that you and i were having. that was the question, was it some sort of construction mishap, accident? was it something left over from the construction site? a lot of chemicals are used in various locations, expolicive items, propane tanks that may have been used to heat up tar for a roof. there's all sorts of things it could have been. but they were very definitive in saying, without much more detail past that, this is an intentional act. but there is no credible specific information that relates this incident to terrorism. what do you think? >> well, he's being close with his words, let's just put it that way. it is an intentional act, but by saying that there is no immediate information related to terrorism, that's correct, and it could be as they develop

their information on the basis of the investigation in the bomb squad that it could become a conspiracy or an act of terrorism that was just very low-scale. they don't view it as an act of international terrorism right now. there have been no claims. and certainly the scale of the attack was not intended to harm a lot of people, certainly by the way the device was placed and the impact of the device. i've actually seen some raw footage which hasn't been confirmed by nbc news of the explosion of that device, and now i can see why more people were injured. it exploded underneath that awning. we call it hoarding. of that building which you showed just a minute ago. >> there it is there, right. >> and you're right, it's actually -- josh marshall, the editor of "talking points memo"

website, lives directly across the street from that site. he wrote a detailed description of what's over there. it's a residence for the blind, it had been being renovated for some time. the device obviously was thrown into one of those trash containers there to act as a containment device, which of course allows any explosive to have a little bit more explosive yield. also would allow all of that awning and hoarding to act as a secondary shrapnel. on the video i saw, it blew materials completely across the street at one of the retail buildings which just happened to have a camera pointed in the direction of that device. so it's easier to understand now why people were injured from some of the debris and shrapnel. but we will have to wait and see whether this will actually evolve from an explosive incident into a domestic

terrorist or international terrorist attack. we shall -- that remains to be see. >> malcolm, there was a statement made by the mayor, no specific or credible information to relate it to the new jersey incident. that new jersey incident was a reported pipe bomb that did happen about two hours south of manhattan. this location here. how did they come to that conclusion as well? at this moment, i guess they're being very specific and careful, as you were saying, no credible or specific information. >> well, the mayor is being accurate. based on the information that he has at this time. and that's his job. until a link is made, that will be done since it crosses state lines, that would be under the purview of the fbi, the vatf, and new jersey state police and new york state police. and new york city's incredible counterterrorism center. to make those connections, if there is a connection. the first information that

you're going to have out of that will come specifically from the device itself. they'll be able to recover the remaining pieces of the device. this secondary device that we see on 23rd and seventh avenue, that's going to yield clues also. if it's an actual, real, functioning explosive device, that malfunctioned or a dummy device that was left in order to draw law enforcement back towards this site, remains to be seen. but as they're analyzed they'll be able to determine, was it the same powder, was it the same containers? >> msnbc terror analyst malcolm nance, stand by. thank you again for big us some of the detail that you're looking at. again the video you were alluding to, not confirmed yet here at nbc news, msnbc, as of yet. but if you're just joining us are it is a midnight hour eastern time. and at the moment we are following an incident, an explosion that has brought all of new york ci