NYC Police Commissioner describes makeup of Times Square car-bomb: but what were the eight bags of 'unknown substance'?

In a press conference this afternoon, New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly offered a detailed description of the car-bomb found inside a Nissan Pathfinder parked in Times Square last night.

At about 2 p.m. Sunday, NYPD breached a 55 by 32 inch gun locker inside the car and found it contained eight bags of an unknown, fertilizer-like substance and an inverted pot with a "bird's nest" of wires. There were three propane tanks next to the gun locker, two five-gallon jerry cans of gasoline, and a timing device, police officials said.

There was no high-grade explosive, and the timing device was clocks attached to wires. Attached to the propane tanks were M88 fireworks, some of which went off.

One alarm clock appeared to be wired into the gun locker. Another alarm clock was wired to a can with up to 30 M88 firecrackers resting between the cans of gasoline.

Surveillance cameras observed the vehicle entering Times Square at 6:28pm Saturday evening.

The noted salt and bomb expert Michael Bloomberg (the idiot mayor, not the news service) offered his keen insights into the bomb's construction.

"The wiring ... looked amateurish, I think, is a nice way to phrase it," Bloomberg added later. "It was made up of consumer-grade fireworks that you can buy in Pennsylvania and drive into New York.

"It certainly could have exploded and had a pretty big fire, and a decent amount of explosive impact," Bloomberg said.

A caller to 9-1-1 was reported to have stated that the car-bomb was "nothing more than a diversion and that a massive explosion would soon be coming to Times Square."