NEW YORK (AP) -- Two improvised explosives were thrown into the rear of the Mexican Consulate early Friday on Manhattan's East Side, shattering some windows, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said.
1010 WINS AUDIO: Stan Brooks Reports
Police believe someone on a bicycle threw the devices -- made from replica grenades packed with explosive powder -- at 3 a.m., causing small explosions that blew out some windows at the multistory building, Kelly said.
In 2005, an explosion caused by two makeshift grenades fitted with fuses blew out a window near Manhattan's British Consulate. There were no injuries, and no one was ever arrested.
The commissioner said witnesses early Friday reported seeing someone on a bike near the consulate, located in the middle of East 39th Street between Madison and Park avenues.
It is sandwiched between an office building and another building under construction covered in green netting. There are some residential buildings on the street with banks, offices and small lunch places along the avenues.
Edgar Trujillo, the press attache with the Mexican Consulate, said three windows were shattered.
Police closed the street to traffic.
On Friday afternoon, about 50 people who had business at the consulate stood on the corner of Madison Avenue waiting to see if they would be allowed inside.
Luisa Hernandez and Vincente Cortez had come from Port Washington, on Long Island, to witness the wedding of Hernandez's cousin.
"I don't know, maybe they cancel,'' she said.
"She's sad,'' Hernandez said of her cousin.
In the 2005 incident at the British Consulate, the explosions took place before 4 a.m. on May 5, 2005, at the same time Britons were going to the polls in an election that returned Prime Minister Tony Blair to power.
A female jogger and perhaps two pedestrians were seen near an entrance to the building just before the explosions, believed to be caused by two makeshift grenades in concrete planters outside the building.
Photo from WNBC.com
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