A homemade bomb exploded outside an upper East Side Starbucks on Monday, shattering the store’s windows and raising fears in one of Manhattan‘s toniest neighborhoods.
The small device ripped a hole in a wooden bench outside the store at Third Ave. and E. 92nd St. about 3:30 a.m.
No one was injured, but the blast terrified sleepy residents on the Memorial Day weekend.
“I heard a giant noise – a big, giant noise, like a crash – and there was a flash,” said Jordan Kovnot, 26, a law student who lives above the Starbucks. “It made me jump up.”
“It felt like an earthquake,” said Adrianna Ebans, 28, who was among more than a dozen residents briefly evacuated from the apartments above the Starbucks. “We were all really scared.”
Scores of detectives pored over the blast site, trying to determine the type of the low-grade explosive device, which investigators believe was either placed on, or taped to, the bench.
Law enforcement sources said surveillance video from several blocks away shows two youths carrying what they believe were the explosives in a plastic container.
Sources said fragments of plastic and foil were found at the blast site, leading investigators to believe several small explosives were placed inside one container.
“We don’t know the motive. Obviously, it’s a cause for concern,” said Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, adding the bomb fragments were being examined at an NYPD lab.
No one claimed responsibility for the blast, nor was it called in ahead of time, police said.
“[The bomb] could have killed somebody so, you know, there’s someone with a sick mind out there, maybe more than one,” said Mayor Bloomberg.
Kelly noted that Starbucks branches have been victimized in other cities by protesters angry at the chain’s global reach.
The Mexican and British consulates and the Times Square military recruiting station have been rattled by pre-dawn explosions in recent years, all occurring between 3:30 and 4:30 a.m. No one has been arrested in those blasts.
The video, however, leads investigators to believe the latest attack may be a malicious prank, unconnected to the other incidents.
The Starbucks bomb was also “smaller and cruder” than those used at the consulates and recruitment center – and may have just been an elaborate firecracker, a law enforcement source said.
Issam Hage, who lives three floors above the Starbucks, told police he was standing at his window moments before the blast and caught a glimpse of two teenagers in front of the Starbucks.
“I saw two kids, teenagers, and they walked over to the bench,” said Hage, 55, who watched the teens dart down the street before turning away from the window. “A few seconds later, it was an explosion like the loudest thunder.”
The brief fireball singed the Starbucks wall and destroyed the bench and windows, but did no damage inside.
“It was loud, dude, you felt it in your chest,” said Bryant Asencio, a security guard at an apartment building across the street.
