The bombs hurled during violent protests near Gracie Mansion on Saturday were real, highly volatile explosive devices, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said Sunday.
“The NYPD Bomb Squad has conducted a preliminary analysis of a device that was ignited and deployed at a protest yesterday and has determined that it is not a hoax device or a smoke bomb,” Tisch wrote on X.
“It is, in fact, an improvised explosive device that could have caused serious injury or death.”
She said that two pro-Muslim demonstrators, identified as Emir Balat and Ibrahim Kayumi, were arrested in the incident, with federal authorities now working with the NYPD.
Law enforcement sources told The Post the exact explosive contained in the device had not been positively identified pending further testing at FBI headquarters in Quantico, Virginia.
The devices were hurled into the crowd when a group of counter protesters mobbed a planned anti-Muslim demonstration organized by right-wing agitator Jake Lang.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani denounced “white supremacist” Lang in a statement Sunday, and said “hate has no place in New York City” — but fell short of mentioning that the alleged bomb-hurlers were part of the counter protest.
“What followed was even more disturbing,” the mayor said. “Violence at a protest is never acceptable. The attempt to use an explosive device and hurt others is not only criminal, it is reprehensible and the antithesis of who we are.”
Meanwhile, sources said cops returned to the scene and closed off East 81st and 82nd streets at East End Avenue as part of the investigation into the incident.
