Petrol cans in parked car spark terror alert

The area was sealed off as bomb squad officers and the city's Emergency Service Unit investigated the suspect car, parked near Union Square tube station, where several lines connect. At least one building was evacuated.

But police later removed the petrol cans from the car and nothing suspicious was found.

Police officers located the owner of the 1991 Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera, which was found in front of the Con Edison utility building at about 10pm local time on Thursday (3am BST).

He told police he had the petrol cans in his car because he mowed lawns for his family. He parked the car in the area because he was attending a concert nearby, police said.

A Con Edison employee reported the vehicle.

Union Square is near Greenwich Village, New York University and the city's landmark Flatiron building. The new alert came nearly two weeks after the attempted car bomb attack at New York's Times Square.

Pakistan-born US citizen Faisal Shahzad, 30, is accused of trying to blow up a van packed with petrol and propane outside Times Square's busy restaurants and Broadway theatres.

Three Pakistani men said to have supplied funds to Shahzad were arrested on Thursday in a series of FBI raids.