NYC Explosion!

No No, it is not a terrorist attack!


NEW YORK (Reuters) - An 83-year-old steam pipe exploded underground in midtown Manhattan on Wednesday, shaking buildings, creating a towering geyser of debris and sending people fleeing in scenes reminiscent of the September 11 attacks.

Officials in New York and Washington promptly ruled out terrorism. One person died of cardiac arrest and about 20 others were injured, some seriously, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said at a news conference.

Boiling, brownish water and steam gushed geyser-like at least 120 feet high out of a crater about 20 feet

wide on Lexington Avenue at 41st Street, one of the busiest areas of New York City near the Grand Central transportation hub.

The scene evoked memories of buildings collapsing in a billow of debris as they did on September 11, 2001, when the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan was destroyed.

"We ran down 43 floors thinking we were going to die," said Megan Fletcher, 35, who works for an Australian company in the Chrysler Building. "It looked like when the buildings collapsed on 9/11."[...]

"It looked like the World Trade Center had exploded. I saw rocks and pebbles coming down. As I was running I got pelted in the head by rocks and concrete. Steam came up and then the ground started breaking up," said Reggie Evans, an office administrator who was covered in mud.[....]

Kwang Choi, 57, was working at a laundromat one block away when the explosion occurred. "People just kept running. People were saying a building collapsed," he said. "I looked outside -- huge smoke, just like 9/11. I just ran."

Said 50-year-old computer worker Azad Mohamed: "Of course, the first thing you think about is terrorism. It's pretty scary."

source