Please be aware of and take special precaution with fireworks. We know all too well what can happen when they go off unexpectedly but this is especially concerning:

The NYPD’s bomb squad was investigating the area of the park near E. 60th St. and Fifth Ave. Cops at the scene suspected a mishap involving fireworks and said it did not appear an explosive device caused the boom heard from blocks away around 11 a.m.

The victim was identified by sources as Connor Golden, 18, from Fairfax, Va. His foot was “all but gone,” one witness said.

“It just demolished his foot. His foot was mutilated,” Hinds added.

Golden groaned on the ground but remained conscious.

“His foot was gone and he handled it pretty well,” Hinds said. “He’s a tough guy…All he said was ‘get help.’”
Hinds said the group had no explosives — something he’d told police for an hour and a half.

“They’re questioning the hell out of me,” Hinds said.

He hesitated to say a bomb had gone off, because the explosion wasn’t that large.

“I want to say someone planted a firework or bottle rocket,” Hinds said.

“It seemed like he stepped on something that was pressure sensitive.”

 

Police said they had responded to an “amputation incident.”

The explosion was heard by attendees of Elie Wiesel’s funeral on E. 61st St. — though there was no sign the blast was related to the memorial for the Pulitzer Prize winning Holocaust survivor.

Witness John Murphy, 53, said he tried to keep Golden conscious following the explosion.

“I saw his friends standing there panicking. I saw the young man laying on the grass. His foot is all but gone. His friends claimed he was walking down the rocks and he stepped on it. It looks like there was an explosion,” Murphy said.

 

“He’s a very tough young man. He’s got a very severe injury,” he said. “We just stayed with him, held his hand and tried to keep him present and make sure he didn’t go into shock.”

Read more: NYDN