Pipe explosion rocks New York

A steam pipe explosion caused panic in Manhattan, sending pedestrians fleeing in scenes reminiscent of the September 11 attacks.Officials quickly ruled out a terrorist attack, but the blast left one person dead and about 20 people injured.Mayor Michael Bloomberg said: "The big fear that we have is there may or may not have been asbestos released."Boiling, brownish water and steam gushed geyser-like at least 120ft high out of a crater about 20ft wide on Lexington Avenue at 41st Street, one of the busiest areas of New York City near Grand Central Station.The scene looked as if buildings were collapsing in a billow of debris as they did on 9/11 when the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan was destroyed.Megan Fletcher, 35, who works for an Australian company in the Chrysler Building, said: "We ran down 43 floors thinking we were going to die. It looked like when the buildings collapsed on 9/11."Police at the scene also raised the concern of asbestos being strewn into the air. Rescue workers and those covered in the debris were being decontaminated at the scene by hazardous materials specialists."It was a steam pipe rupture right before 6pm. We're in the process of isolating the pipeline, assessing for possible collateral damage," said Alfonso Quiroz, a spokesman for power utility Consolidated Edison.It was the latest public embarrassment for ConEd, which is under scrutiny for power blackouts.The pipe of 24 inches in diameter was installed in 1924, Mr Bloomberg said, and may have burst because cold water somehow entered it.© Independent Television News Limited 2007. All rights reserved.

ITN | July 19, 2007

Tags:. .quiroz. .decontaminated. .strewn. .geyser. .brownish