Times Square Bomb Scare First New York City Car Bomb Since 1993 at World Trade Center

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The smoking vehicle that shut down Times Square Saturday night is the first car bomb set off in the city since 1993's deadly explosion at the World Trade Center.

In late February 1993, six people were killed and 1,042 were injured when a 1,300-pound bomb in a yellow Ryder van was detonated below the north tower, blowing a hole half the size of a football field in its basement.

The attack, financed by Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, was a precursor to the 9/11 attacks, since the goal of the six convicted bombers was to knock down both towers.

The stunning bombing is now viewed as the opening chapter in a new era of terrorism on U.S. soil, though its significance was not immediately recognized - and, indeed, the terrorists later succeeded in their goal.

"It should have been a wake-up call for America," Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly told The Associated Press on the attack's 10th anniversary. "We simply didn't see it as an international conspiracy to destroy our society."

The city's deadliest car bombing occurred in 1920, when 38 people were killed and 400 wounded by an Italian anarchist who filled a horse-drawn carriage with explosives and parked it in the city's Financial District.

Times Square has been a target for terror as recently as March 2008, when a cyclist placed a makeshift explosive outside of the NYPD recruitment center then sped off. No one was injured during the 3:30 a.m. blast.

A scare shut down parts of Times Square - and delayed a New Year's Eve rehearsal - on Dec. 30, 2009, after a 1997 Dodge van with no license plates and a phony parking placard sat illegally parked for two days. It turned out that the van contained only clothes.

Daily News

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