Empty rice cookers spark bomb scare in New York

Three abandoned rice cookers sparked a massive evacuation at one of New York City's busiest transit hubs and snarled rush-hour traffic on Friday.

Police later determined the objects were not explosives and launched a search for a man who was "observed in the area of the Fulton Street subway station with a shopping cart and a suspicious device".

The NYPD is looking to locate and identify this individual who’s wanted for questioning in regard to the suspicious items inside the Fulton Street subway station this morning in Lower Manhattan. Contact @NYPDTips at #800577TIPS with info — alert a cop or call 911 if you see him. pic.twitter.com/OFTJgPv2sw

— Terence Monahan (@TerenceMonahan) August 16, 2019

Surveillance footage showed the man taking two of the rice cookers out of a shopping cart and placing them in the subway station in lower Manhattan.

Police said the first alarm was sounded in Manhattan around 7:00 am (local time) when a passenger saw a cooker abandoned at the Fulton Street subway station.