Three Injured : New York's Bustling Times Square

A shooting in New York's bustling Times Square has injured two women and a four-year-old girl, in an incident US authorities were still scrambling to understand, police said.

The incident took place on Saturday just before 5:00 pm local time (9:00 pm GMT), at the intersection of 7th Avenue and 44th Street, a NYPD spokesperson told AFP. 

The three victims were hospitalised in Manhattan, and their lives were not in danger, he added.   

No arrests have yet been made, and police said the "investigation is still ongoing," without giving further details.

Times Square, one of New York's tourist hotspots before the pandemic, has changed since theatres all closed in March 2020. 

According to a recent report by the Times Square Alliance, the neighbourhood business association, the area recorded 25 violent crimes in the first quarter of 2021, up from 17 in the same period of 2020. 

At the end of March, a video of an assault on an older woman of Asian descent shocked the neighbourhood. 

A man with a criminal record, who lived in a hotel near Times Square that had become a reception centre for the homeless, was arrested and charged. 

Neighbourhood theatres are set to start reopening on September 14, however, and the mayor of New York, Bill de Blasio, recently announced a major campaign to revive tourism from June.

Shootings in New York have sharply increased since the summer of 2020 and the protests against the police violence that followed the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, official data show.

Crime in general was up 30 percent over the same period.

AND ANOTHER, The US government has declared a regional emergency as the largest fuel pipeline system in the United States remained largely shut down, two days after a major ransomware attack was detected.

The Colonial Pipeline Company ships gasoline and jet fuel from the Gulf Coast of Texas to the populous East Coast through 8,850 kilometers (5,500 miles) of pipeline, serving 50 million consumers.

The company said it was the victim of a cybersecurity attack involving ransomware – attacks that encrypt computer systems and seek to extract payments from operators.

"This Declaration addresses the emergency conditions creating a need for immediate transportation of gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, and other refined petroleum products and provides necessary relief," the Department of Transportation said in a statement.

The cyberattack was carried out by a criminal gang known as DarkSide that cultivates a Robin Hood image of stealing from corporations and giving a cut to charity, two people close to the investigation said. 

The emergency declaration allows for fuel to be transported by road to the affected states: Alabama, Arkansas, District of Columbia, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.

The declaration also provides regulatory relief to commercial motor vehicle operations that are part of the emergency support efforts.

Colonial said earlier on Sunday that it had opened some smaller delivery lines, but the main system was not yet back up and running.

"While our mainlines remain offline, some smaller lateral lines between terminals and delivery points are now operational," Colonial said in a statement, adding it would "bring our full system back online only when we believe it is safe to do so."

"We have remained in contact with law enforcement and other federal agencies, including the Department of Energy who is leading the Federal Government response," it added.

"Maintaining the operational security of our pipeline, in addition to safely bringing our systems back online, remain our highest priorities."