May 6, 2005	Friday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 26, 1426

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NEW YORK, May 5. Two small explosives went off outside a building housing the British Consulate in Manhattan on early Thursday, the election day in Britain, causing slight damage but injuring no one, city officials said. The blasts, occurring at 3:35a.m, were caused by grenades placed inside a cement flower box outside the front door of the midtown building, police spokesman Noel Waters said.

“We do not at this point have any idea who did it and why,” New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg told a news conference, and expressed the hope they would find out and apprehend the culprits.

He said no one should jump to a conclusion about a possible motive for the blasts as no threats had been received before or after the incident. No other consulates in the city had been threatened, he added.

After piecing together the shrapnel, police determined the devices were toy grenades filled with gunpowder. Officers estimated that one was the size of a pineapple and the other that of a lemon.

No timing device was used, New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said. Mr Bloomberg and Mr Kelly stressed it was not clear whether the British Consulate, located on the 9th and 10th floors of the building was the target.

The police department’s bomb squad was at the scene and streets were closed in the area.

Offices of other foreign diplomatic representatives were checked as a precaution and nothing was found, Mr Kelly said. Security videos in the area were being reviewed, he said.

The 14-story glass and metal building, situated at a distance of less than a mile from the United Nations headquarters, houses domestic and foreign companies on upper floors and retail shops on lower level.

The blasts shattered a panel of glass at the building’s front door and ripped a 30-centimeter (1-foot) chunk from the planter. Shrapnel was found as far as half a block away, Mr Kelly said.