Bomb Scare Disrupts Rush Hour Trains and Traffic in Financial District

After the rice cookers were deemed safe, a NYPD Bomb Squad truck on John Street leaves the scene. Photo: Carl Glassman/Tribeca Trib

Two rice cookers were discovered on the platform of the Fulton Street subway station Friday morning around 7 a.m., leading to a bomb squad investigation that closed off blocks of the Financial District and and disrupted rush hour subway service on seven subway lines. Police deemed the cookers safe.

The NYPD is looking for a person of interest who they say is seen on video with a shopping cart containing what turned out to be a rice cooker. In the video, officials say, he places a cooker on the station's upper level and then on the lower level.

About an hour later, a third rice cooker, also determined not to be a bomb, was found on the sidewalk at 7th Avenue and 16th Street. Police say the object appeared to have been put out with the garbage.

Police said a passenger who had seen one of the cookers alerted two counterterrorism transit officers who then called for additional units.

Police are asking anyone with information about the person pictured above should call Det. Brian McCarthy at 212-529-4481 or the Detective Borough of Manhattan South at 212-477-7447.

During the investigation, the A, C, J, 2, 3, 4, and 5 subway lines bypassed Fulton Street and police closed John Street, between William and Gold and Fulton Street, between William and Platt. Normal subway service resumed around 9:40 a.m.