Grenades explode at NYC offices of BritishConsulate

USA TODAY, May, 2005 by Kevin McCoy

NEW YORK -- A pre-dawn explosion Thursday shattered a glass panel in an office building that houses the British Consulate. Nobody was injured in the blast that came on the same day Britons voted in parliamentary elections.

Two makeshift grenades hidden in a concrete planter detonated about 3:35 a.m. The force of the blast propelled a foot-long chunk of concrete through a glass panel in the building's front door, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said.

Police questioned and later released a United Nations employee from the Netherlands who was found loitering near the scene. He was not identified.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg said no warning threats or phone calls were made before the blast, and no one claimed responsibility afterward. He cautioned against linking...