New York City mayor and police commissioner confirmed on Sunday that a vehicle in Times Square "contained an explosive device," and the bomb-making material was removed together with a crude timing device.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly made the statement at a press conference on the streets near Times Square in the small hours on Sunday.

At the moment, nobody knew who did this with the black Nissan Pathfinder when it was found in smoke at 6:30 p.m. local time (2330 GMT) on Saturday, the mayor said, adding that the street surveillance cameras in the area had not produced any clues so far in the incident.

The mayor and the police commissioner, who attended the White House Correspondents dinner in Washington on Saturday night, received updates throughout the night. They cut short their evening plans and flew back to New York City, arriving shortly after midnight.

The Times Square remained closed from the West 43rd Street to 48th Street between the Sixth and Eighth Avenues in Manhattan as investigation was underway. An enormous police presence was seen in the Times Square.

Thousands of people were evacuated from dozens of buildings in the tourist attraction area when the explosive material was removed from the suspicious car. Nobody was injured.

The incident caused an alarm and public panic in New York City, where terrorist attacks were staged in what was known as the 9/11 incident, killing thousands of innocent people.

The mayor told the press conference that the general public can feel free to go on with their usual business.

At the moment, the police did not say who owns the unoccupied black vehicle.