A suspect was taken into custody Monday morning after an incendiary device went off outside 26 Federal Plaza in Lower Manhattan, sending flames into the area around the federal building and triggering a fast response from the fire department.
Police said people should expect traffic delays, mass transit disruptions and road closures near Worth Street and Lafayette Street, and urged people to avoid the area as the scene remained active.
The building houses dozens of agencies, including the FBI, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which made the blast outside 26 Federal Plaza a disruption for more than one office at once. Lower Manhattan Monday was already dealing with the immediate fallout, and the fact that the building is home to multiple federal agencies gave the incident broader reach than a street-level fire would normally carry.
Preliminary information pointed to fireworks in a garbage can as the source of the blast, a detail that sits awkwardly beside the initial description of an incendiary device going off outside the building. An initial review found no shots were fired, narrowing what investigators and responders were dealing with even as the cause of the explosion was still not fully settled.
What is clear is that the morning disruption did not stay small. A man was taken into custody, flames were put out, and the area around Federal Plaza in Lower Manhattan was left with delays and closures while the question of what set off the blast remains unanswered.
