2 Grenades Explode Outside British Consulate Building in New York

NEW YORK — Two grenades exploded Thursday outside a building housing the British Consulate, causing minor property damage but no injuries. Officials said they had no indication that the consulate or anyone else in the building were targets.

The grenades, which were described as novelty devices from World War II packed with black powder, were in a concrete planter outside the skyscraper at 835 3rd Ave. in Manhattan. They exploded at 3:30 a.m., officials said.

Britain held an election Thursday in which Prime Minister Tony Blair won a third term, but no evidence emerged to support initial concerns that the consulate was a target.

“We don’t know who the particular target was,” Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said at a news conference near the building. “There were no threats or phone calls, and nobody is claiming credit for this. So there’s no reason to jump to any conclusions.”

Police shut down a portion of Third Avenue and adjacent streets through the morning rush hour, and there were brief interruptions in subway service on the Upper East Side. Police sealed off the building in early morning, but reopened it after security checks.

A preliminary review of surveillance tapes indicated a jogger and a taxi had passed in front of the building moments before the grenades went off, prompting Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly to ask that any New Yorkers with knowledge of the incident to come forward.

The blast scattered glass and shrapnel up to a block away, and could have caused “serious injury” to someone walking nearby, he said.

“These were crude devices,” Kelly said, noting that one of grenades was the size of a pineapple, the other the size of a lemon.

Although some businesses in the building closed for the day, officials with the British Consulate vowed to go on with business as usual.

“This is election day in Britain so [consulate employees] are keen to get on with their work,” said Sir Philip Thomas, British consul general. “We have a party here this evening to follow the results, and we’ll want to carry on with that.”

Police and FBI officials have not identified any suspects, but said they had spoken with one “person of interest,” a man seen loitering in the area at the time of the blasts. Officials were reviewing the surveillance tape.

“The tape is of poor quality and we’re still trying to enhance it, to make it clearer,” Kelly said. “But it’s possible that it shows one of the devices being thrown, landing above the numbers of the building” over the main entrance “and then coming down to the ground. At this time, it’s not clear.”

Security precautions were heightened at the United Nations several blocks away.

“Despite what happened, the consulate and interior of the building seemed quite normal this morning,” a spokeswoman for the British Consulate said. “Maybe the reason is that it’s still so early, and no one really has a clue why this happened.”