Explosion rocks Manhattan, revives 9/11 memories

New York, July 19: An underground steam pipe exploded in midtown Manhattan, shaking buildings, creating a towering geyser of debris and sending pedestrians fleeing in scenes reminiscent of the Sept 11 attacks.

Officials in New York and Washington promptly ruled out a terrorist attack in the yesterday explosion. One person died and about 20 people were injured, some seriously, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said.

''The big fear that we have is there may or may not have been asbestos released,'' Bloomberg said.

Boiling, brownish water and steam gushed geyser-like at least 120 feet high (36 metres) out of a crater about 20 feet (6 metres) wide on Lexington Avenue at 41st Street, one of the busiest areas of New York City near the Grand Central transportation hub.

The scene looked as if buildings were collapsing in a billow of debris as they did on Sept 11, 2001 when the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan was destroyed.

''We ran down 43 floors thinking we were going to die,'' said Megan Fletcher, 35, who works for an Australian company in the Chrysler Building. ''It looked like when the buildings collapsed on 9/11.'' Police at the scene also raised the concern of asbestos being strewn into the air. Rescue workers and those covered in the debris were being decontaminated at the scene by hazardous materials specialists.

''It was a steam pipe rupture right before 6 pm We're in the process of isolating the pipeline, assessing for possible collateral damage,'' said Alfonso Quiroz, a spokesman for power utility Consolidated Edison.

It was the latest public embarrassment for ConEd, which is under scrutiny for power blackouts.

The pipe of 24 inches in diameter was installed in 1924, Bloomberg told a news conference, and may have burst because cold water somehow entered it.

Havoc At Rush Hour

Pedestrians sprinted from the scene, many with cell phones glued to their ears, some crying. Some were covered in white ash and soot, others in mud. A small, yellow school bus stood by, badly damaged by the geyser.

The blast shook buildings and broke windows up to 10 stories high on Lexington Avenue.

The geyser was contained about 90 minutes afterward, revealing a truck stuck in the crater.

''There was steam and mud coming up to the 12th floor,'' said Doron Sher, 29, a real estate broker who works on the 12th floor of a building next to the explosion. ''We thought it's like a bomb or hurricane.'' ''It looked like the World Trade Center had exploded. I saw rocks and pebbles coming down. As I was running I got pelted in the head by rocks and concrete. Steam came up and then the ground started breaking up,'' said Reggie Evans, an office administrator who was covered in mud.

Authorities evacuated a wide area including the emblematic Chrysler Building.

The blast created havoc at rush hour. Nearly 200 firefighters rushed to the scene, which was crowded with ambulances and fire engines. People wore masks to avoid breathing pollutants.

Kwang Choi, 57, was working at a laundromat one block away when the explosion occurred. ''People just kept running. People were saying a building collapsed,'' he said. ''I looked outside huge smoke, just like 9/11. I just ran.'' Said 50-year-old computer worker Azad Mohamed: ''Of course, the first thing you think about is terrorism. It's pretty scary.''

Reuters>