New York, NY – The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) cancelled shuttle service between Times Square and Grand Central Station on Sunday night, and rerouted trains around the station following a bomb threat to the commuter rail terminal station.
At approximately 9:20 pm on Sunday an unidentified male called 911 and claimed that a bomb would explode at Grand Central Terminal.
According to DNAinfo , at 9:40 pm an MTA spokeswoman confirmed that the Times Square shuttle had been temporarily shut down, and the 4, 5, and 6 trains were bypassing the station, but would not comment on the cause of the diversion. They instead referred inquiries to the commuter railroad Metro North.
A Metro North Railroad spokeswoman said “an NYPD investgation” was currently underway, but that “nothing [was] wrong at Grand Central Terminal, which is what the MTA handles.”
At 10:15 pm, trains returned to their normal schedule and an MTA spokesperson confirmed that the reason for rerouting was in fact a bomb threat, according to a Newser report .
Deirdre Parker, an MTA representative, said, “The trains are back to normal as of now … My understanding is that it was bomb threat, but that’s all I know. I don’t know anything about the terminal, and the NYPD is taking the lead on it.”
An NYPD spokesman announced at 11 pm that he received an update from the Grand Central Station’s local NYPD precinct, but would not confirm the validity of the bomb scare reports.
Initial reports of the incident were reported on only a few news pages, but Twitter activity was rampant.
Manhattan: Grand Central Terminal NYPD reporting a male is saying Bomb will go off in 13 minutes Bomb Squad requested Area being evacuated.
— NY Scanner (@NYScanner) February 25, 2013
Manhattan: Grand Central Terminal. NYPD reporting m/b stating a Bomb would go off in 13 minutes. Bomb Squad enroute. Area evacuated. NY02
— New York City Alerts (@NYCityAlerts) February 25, 2013
“Grand Central [Station] was not evacuated and trains are running normal,” an NYPD spokesman said.
A 30 minute search of the train station by NYPD was unable to discover a bomb and cleared the transit authority for normal operations.
