From The Telegraph U.K.

“Luckily, no one is hurt, and now the full attention of city, state and federal law enforcement will be turned to bringing the guilty party to justice in this act of terrorism,” New York Governor David Paterson said.

The bomb, which failed to detonate, was left in a sport utility vehicle close to a Broadway theatre where a production of The Lion King was showing.

It contained three propane tanks, fireworks, two five gallon gasoline containers, two clocks with batteries, electrical wires and a 4ft by 2ft metal box.

The dark green Nissan Pathfinder with tinted windows was parked near the junction of 45th Street and Broadway.

The location is also adjacent to the Viacom building, fuelling speculation that it might be linked to the company’s controversial South Park cartoon which recently depicted Prophet Muhammad in a bear suit.

It was abandoned with its engine running and hazard lights flashing. A T-shirt vendor, who was a Vietnam veteran, alerted police when he noticed smoke coming out of it.

A mounted police officer examined the vehicle and saw white smoke billowing inside. He also smelled gunpowder.

Police hurriedly evacuated thousands of tourists and theatre-goers, including women in evening gowns, from the area on Broadway’s busiest night of the week.

Heavily armed police and FBI agents were deployed on the empty streets as bomb disposal experts used a robot to break the windows on the vehicle and remove explosive material.

New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said: “I think the intent was to cause a significant ball of fire.”

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg returned immediately to the city from a White House dinner.

Speaking at the scene, he said: “We are very lucky. Thanks to alert New Yorkers and professional police officers, we avoided what could have been a very deadly event.

“The bomb squad confirmed that the suspicious vehicle did contain an explosive device. We have no idea who did this or why.”

He added: “Terrorists who want to take our freedoms away from us focus on the symbol of those freedoms, and that’s New York City.”

Mr Bloomberg said the wiring of the bomb “looked amateurish” and it had used “consumer grade fireworks” that were easily obtainable.

The alarm was raised at 6.34pm (10.34pm GMT) and six minutes earlier a security camera had recorded the Nissan heading west on 45th Street.

Police have also established that the car’s plates, which were from Connecticut, were not the ones registered to it.

They have already spoken to the owner of the plates who said he had taken them to a junkyard.

Mr Bloomberg said police had no reports of anyone being seen running away from the vehicle after abandoning it.

Times Square is four miles north of the site where terrorists destroyed the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. The car was parked near the headquarters of Viacom, producer of South Park, the cartoon that was recently threatened for a plotline involving the prophet Mohammad.

The area that was evacuated and shut down is one of the prime spots for Broadway shows, with seven theatres and shows including Billy Elliot.

Katy Neubauer, 46, who was shopping for souvenirs nearby, said there had been panic. She said: “It was a mass of people running away from the scene.”

Don Slovin, watching the police through the window of a shop a block away, said, “Of course it conjures up memories of 9/11.”

President Barack Obama praised the quick response by the New York Police Department and said the federal government was prepared to provide support.

An Afghan immigrant and self-confessed Al-Qaeda agent Najibullah Zazi pleaded guilty in February to a plot to set off bombs in New York’s subway system.

The 25-year-old could be sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction, conspiracy to commit murder in a foreign country and providing material support to the Al-Qaeda Islamist network.

Last year, four New Yorkers went on trial in an alleged plot to bomb a synagogue in the city and shoot down military planes.