Times Square looked more like downtown Baghdad yesterday as this suited-up NYPD Bomb Squad member carefully inspected a suspicious package that shut down the Crossroads of the World for more than an hour.
Reports of suspicious packages have skyrocketed in the wake of the failed car-bomb attempt in Times Square last Saturday evening as nervous New Yorkers remained on edge, the NYPD said.
That jitteriness reached a climax at 1:30 p.m. when a green cooler bag was found abandoned in the middle of the pedestrian mall at West 46th Street and Broadway.
The Bomb Squad was called in to investigate.
First, the squad’s robot approached the bag and took X-ray photos.
When those proved inconclusive, squad member Kevin Canavan donned the oversized suit and helmet — a la the Oscar-winning film “The Hurt Locker” — and did a personal inspection.
He discovered the cooler contained only a few bottles of Poland Spring water and a bag to hold a book.
It was the second of at least four police runs to Midtown prompted by threatening-looking packages and vehicles yesterday.
The first was an oversized brown paper bag at 45th Street and Eighth Avenue at 9:40 a.m. Cops shut off the block and, after 40 minutes of investigation, discovered it was a ham sandwich, sources said.
At 2:28 p.m., someone reported a truck at 45th Street and 10th Avenue, which cops quickly determined to be harmless.
“Calls are up about 30 percent for suspicious packages. It will eventually taper off. People are being more vigilant. That’s a good thing,” NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said. “We would rather err on the side of caution.”
On a normal day, police receive around 100 calls reporting suspicious packages. Thursday, they got as many as 145.
Meanwhile in Pakistan, two notorious militant Islamist bomb makers were hauled in for questioning, after phone records connected them to failed Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad. The men, members of the terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed, were being interrogated by both US and Pakistani investigators.
Shahzad’s father was also being grilled in Pakistan, while the terror fiend’s wife, Huma Mian, is believed to be holed up with her family in her native Saudi Arabia.
Sources told the LA Times that Shahzad’s family knew at least two Pakistani militants — including one that became a Taliban leader and one that took part in the 2008 terrorist attack in Mumbai, India — and were trying to determine if he was recruited by them.
Also yesterday, a source said investigators had been looking on Long Island for a courier who shuttled money to Shahzad from overseas.