New York Time Square has been shut down Saturday evening after a T-shirt vendor - a Vietnam vet - told Officer Wayne Rhatigan there was smoke coming from a Nissan SUV on the southwest corner of 45th St. and Broadway about 7 p.m., sources said. The block was closed between Seventh and Eighth avenues as a precaution, police officer said. Times Square lies about four traffic-choked miles north of where terrorists bombed the World Trade Center in 1993. Thousands of tourists were evacuated from the streets while the bomb is being dismantled. New York City avoided what could have been "a very deadly event", New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said, and commended the T-shirt vendor for informing the police officer.
