Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 28, 1993 TAG: 9302280202
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: Medium
FEW CLUES IN N.Y. BLAST
Terrorists might have been responsible for a deadly explosion at the World Trade Center, authorities said Saturday. The FBI director suggested the blast might be related to the troubles in the former Yugoslavia.Officials, who reached the point of the explosion Saturday, all but confirmed that a bomb caused it. Five people were killed and two were missing. Friday's explosion, which rocked the world's second-tallest buildings from their foundations to their sky-high observation decks, injured more than 1,000 people.
Traces of nitrate at the scene, and the amount of heat and damage, strengthened the bomb theory, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly told a news conference.
"Our best guess is there is a high probability it was a bombing, possibly terrorist related," James Fox, director of the FBI's Manhattan office, said Saturday.
Gov. Mario Cuomo said, "It looks like a bomb, it smells like a bomb, it probably is a bomb."
President Clinton promised to "find out who is involved and why this happened."
FBI director William Sessions suggested Saturday that the explosion might be connected to ethnic warfare in the former republics of Yugoslavia and peace talks planned at the United Nations. "The Bosnians, the Serbians, Croatians, the Muslims, all these conflicts in the area might lead you to the conclusion that because they're meeting in New York there might be some connection with the explosion there," Sessions said on NBC News.
Kelly said police received 19 calls claiming responsibility, all after the blast.
The New York Times reported in today's edition that investigators were taking one call, from a man with a foreign accent who cited the strife in the former Yugoslavia, more seriously than the others.
The blast detonated in an underground parking garage and filled the 110-story towers with thick, black smoke.
Two employees of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey remained missing Saturday, and a search of the garage's rubble using thermal imaging cameras was planned. Four of those killed were also employed by the Port Authority, which operates the trade center.
Mayor David Dinkins, who cut short a trip to Japan where he was promoting the city's image as a business center, toured the blast site Saturday.
"I saw a very gaping hole . . . I just marvel that more people weren't killed, given the location and the hour," he told reporters.
Swarming over the wrecked garage, experts from the police department, FBI and the Treasury Department's Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms division finally reached what a senior officer said was the explosion's point of origin. "It's just a space" in mid-air, said Lt. Walter Boser, commander of the Police Department's bomb squad.
The bombing spurred police to institute the same type security procedures they used to deter terrorist attacks during the Persian Gulf War, Kelly said. Local airports increased security measures on Friday, when bomb threats were phoned in to the Empire State Building and the United Nations.
Friday night, a source demanding anonymity had told The Associated Press that the first call was placed 15 minutes before the blast. Saturday, the source denied saying that.
The 12:18 p.m. explosion reduced the underground garage to a mass of shattered concrete and twisted metal. It occurred directly under one of the towers and the Vista Hotel. It blew holes through two lower levels, which included a commuter train station. Service on that line was out through the weekend.
The two main Trade Center buildings will be closed at least through Monday while the damage is assessed, said Stanley Brezenoff, Port Authority executive director.
The two missing workers were not identified. They were believed to be somewhere in what was left of the parking garage. Teams of city police, Port Authority police and firefighters were "turning over every piece of concrete" to find them, said Fire Department spokesman Frank McCabe.
In hopes the workers were alive, thermal imaging cameras - which would pick up body heat from the midst of the rubble - were being used in the search, he said.
Officials said Saturday that 1,042 people were injured, all but 15 suffering from smoke inhalation or exhaustion. Those 15 were injured when the bomb went off.
On an average weekday, 130,000 people are in the World Trade Center - 50,000 workers and 80,000 visitors.
Keywords:
FATALITY