NEW YORK -- The Puerto Rican terrorist group FALN exploded four powerful bombs in the Wall Street financial district late Sunday to protest 'Yankee imperialism,' damaging the New York and American stock exchanges and two other buildings.
Security was tightened in the area today as the business community reported for work.
The blasts came less than an hour before the 28th anniversary of the March 1, 1954, attack by Puerto Rican nationalists on the U.S. House of Representatives in which five congressmen were wounded by gunfire.
The FALN claimed responsibility for the explosions that damaged the New York and American stock exchanges and the headquarters of Merrill Lynch and the Chase Manhattan Bank just before midnight.
There were no injuries, but streets and plazas were littered with shards of glass.
As executives, brokers, clerks and secretaries began filling Wall Street on their way to work, guards checked identification cards, briefcases and packages at the two exchanges.
Trading began as usual at 10 a.m., but the visitor's gallery was closed at the NYSE. The Amex gallery has been closed since September because of construction.
At the Chase Manhattan and Merrill Lynch buildings, extra security personnel were stationed at entrances to watch for suspicious people and packages.
Amidst jokes in elevators, one Chase employee, Charles Francis, said he was not unnerved by the bombing, declaring, 'That's New York.'
Huge windows on the mezzanine level were shattered in the blast at the Chase plaza, forcing company officials to move personnel from an insurance division to another floor.
Officials at Chase and Merrill Lynch, where a blast knocked out 30 feet of glass on the ground floor, said it was still too early to estimate the cost of the damage.
Merrill Lynch security Sgt. Elvin Butcher said the company had received threatening calls and even a letter bomb in the past, but had never had an actual explosion until now.
'The men have been ordered to keep an eye out for any suspicious looking objects or characters,' he said. 'Living in New York, you got to expect these things.'
The FALN, dedicated to independence for Puerto Rico, claimed responsiblity for the bombings in a multi-page communique they had left for police found in a telephone booth about 6 miles north of Wall Street.
Police Sgt. Edward Leschack said the first explosion occurred at 11:25 p.m. at the headquarters of the Merrill Lynch stock brokerage. Ten minutes later, bombs exploded at the headquarters of Chase Manhattan bank and at the New York Stock Exchange a few blocks away. The last blast went off at 11:55 p.m. at the American Stock Exchange.
High-powered explosives -- possibly dynamite -- were used in the bombs, he said.
Witnesses said a late model four-door car crammed with people was seen speeding from the area moments after the blasts.
Shortly after the bombing, police said, a news agency reported it received a telephone call from a man claiming to be a representative of the Puerto Rican terrorist organization FALN, and directed police to an envelope in a telephone booth. The anonymous caller did not mention the blasts.
Police recovered the letter, which they described as 'a typical FALN communique' that mentioned the bombings and decried 'imperialistic forces' opposing statehood for Puerto Rico, said Patrick Murphy, the Police Department's chief of operations.
Murphy said the FALN communique said the bombings were to protest 'Yankee imperialism.'
'The FALN assumes full responsibility for the bombings which have occurred in the financial sector of Wall Street, Sunday, Feb. 28, 1982,' read the first line of the 'multi-paged' communique. Police declined to make the rest public.
The FALN -- 'Fuerzas Armadas De Liberacion Nacional' (Armed Forces for National Liberation) -- is comprised of radical ethnic Puerto Ricans living in the United States who are dedicated to independence for Puerto Rico from the United States.
Since 1974, the FALN has claimed responsibility for about 120 bombings in the New York City area, Chicago and Washington. Five people died in the attacks, four of them when a bomb went off at New York's historic Fraunces Tavern in January 1975. Last May, the FALN planted five bombs around the city, including the U.S. Mission to the United Nations.
The message also expressed 'solidarity' with radicals arrested in last October's bungled Brink's armored car robbery in Nyack, N.Y., in which two police officers and a guard were killed. Police have charged former members of the Weather Underground and the Black Liberation Army with the Nyack killings.
Steven Morales, a communications analyst who was working in the building around the corner from the New York Exchange, said that when he ran out to the street he saw 'a large, old-model, four-door car jammed with 10 or 12 people who took off like they were in a hurry.'
Pat Molloy, a security guard at Merrill Lynch, said he was manning the front desk when the blast occured. 'My ears are still ringing. I'm still shook up.' He said about 25 workers were in the building at the time.
