RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
We've been following the ongoing investigation into the explosion last night in New York City. To recap, a powerful blast shook the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan. Twenty-nine people were injured. They've all now been released from the hospital. Authorities say the explosion was caused by a homemade bomb. They don't know who made it or what their motivation might have been. The mayor of New York City and the governor of New York have both made a point of saying there is no evidence at this point that the explosion is linked to international terrorism. This is, of course, an ongoing investigation. Joining us now is NPR's Jeff Brady.
Jeff, we heard Mayor Bill de Blasio just now. He wrapped up a press conference. And he was joined by the New York City Police Commissioner James O'Neill. What were the big headlines out of that press conference?
JEFF BRADY, BYLINE: You know, we heard a lot of cautiousness from authorities here in New York City. And there seems to be a concern about giving whoever the suspect or suspects are any information that might help them. Bill Sweeney with the FBI - he said that you just don't want to do that. You don't want to put any information out there that might give those suspects, you know, information that could help them, you know, not get caught, that sort of thing. They will say that, you know, someone planted this device - that it exploded. And they just really don't want to say much more than that. Here's how Mayor Bill de Blasio described the situation a few minutes ago.
(SOUNDBITE OF PRESS CONFERENCE)
MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO: We know there was a bombing. That much, we do know. But we have a lot more work to do to be able to say what kind of motivation was behind this. Was it a political motivation, a personal motivation? What was it? We do not know that yet.
BRADY: Mayor de Blasio urged people here in New York to go about their day. He said there's going to be a big police presence. When people go back to work tomorrow, expect to see a lot of heavily armed people around the city. And I just walked around the city, and I saw residents and tourists everywhere, just as you would expect on a Sunday afternoon.
MARTIN: So what do we know about what they're looking into? What's the status of the investigation right now?
BRADY: It is very active. There's a large area around the blast site that's closed off. There's an area - it goes all the way north of there where another device was found. Evidence from those sites are being examined now. There is a lot of effort going into this. And authorities, as I said, are being really cautious. They say they don't want to release anything that might not be correct later on down the road as they learn more about what's happening here.
MARTIN: So no suspects yet?
BRADY: No suspects at all - at least not that they're talking about.
MARTIN: Yeah.
BRADY: So, you know, we don't know what's going on behind the scenes. But there are no suspects that have been announced. The authorities here did say that there are no, you know, the usual suspects claiming responsibility for this bombing right now. So we're just sort of left with a little bit of information that there was a bombing. And 29 people were hurt, and now they've being released from the hospital.
MARTIN: Do we know any more about whether there's any connection between what happened in New Jersey yesterday and the explosion last night?
BRADY: You know, police here say that because they're so close together, they have to look at that possibility. But they're not seeing any evidence that they're connected right now. But boy, when you hear of one of these things, you start thinking - and then you hear of another one happening, you start thinking, maybe they're connected and there's something else going on here. But the authorities say there are no credible threats in New York City right now. And they just want people to go about their day. And they're going to go about their work trying to find the suspects here.
BRADY: NPR's Jeff Brady reporting from New York. Thanks so much, Jeff. Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.