Crime & Safety

Mail Bomb Found At Hell's Kitchen Post Office: NYPD

Another mail bomb was discovered Friday morning at a post office on West 52nd Street.

MIDTOWN MANHATTAN, NY — A package that resembles mail bombs sent to CNN and Robert De Niro's TriBeCa production company was intercepted at a Hell's Kitchen post office on Friday morning, an NYPD spokesman said.

Employees at the West 52nd Street post office, located between Eight hand Ninth avenues, found a suspicious package at the facility around 8:30 a.m., an NYPD spokesman said. The NYPD bomb squad and emergency services units responded to the scene and are "working closely" with state and federal law enforcement agencies, the spokesman said.

The package was removed from the Hell's Kitchen site around 10 a.m. and nobody was injured, police officials said. The NYPD presence in the area should be hightened as the department's investigation continues, police said.

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Update: An arrest has been made in relation to this week's package bombs.

A department spokesman could not confirm who the package was intended for. The New York Times reported that the package found Friday was addressed to former United States director of national intelligence James Clapper with CNN's office address.

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The former intelligence official said Friday that he's "not surprised" that he was targeted by the mail bomber, the Associated Press reported. Clapper said the situation is "serious" but will not "silence the administration's critics," while at the same time maintaining that he doesn't beleive there's a "direct link" to the attempted bombings and President Donald Trump's rhetoric.

CNN President Jeff Zucker said the media organization is screening all of its domestic mail off-site, so the package found Friday morning would have never reached the Time Warner Center even if it hadn't been flagged at the post office.

Trump tweeted at 3:14 a.m. Friday morning that he found it "funny" how media organizations such as CNN have linked his statements to the attempted bombings.

A mail bomb addressed to New Jersey Senator Corey Booker was also intercepted Friday in Florida, the FBI announced. The packages found Friday brought the total number up to 12, most sent to Democrat officials and frequent targets of Republican President Donald Trump such as Hillary and Bill Clinton, President Barack Obama and billionaire political donor George Soros.

Florida police confirmed Thursday night that federal investigators are focusing on a potential link between the terror-by-mail plot and a Miami-area mail facility. All of the packages discovered in the plot have been listed with a return address for Florida Congresswoman and former Democratical National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz. One of the packages — intended for former Attorney General Eric Holder — was returned to Schultz's office.

The NYPD shut down the Hell's Kitchen street as it operated on scene at the post office.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Lead photo shows the device sent to CNN Wednesday by ABC News, via Associated Press

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