Foxnews is reporting people getting sick in New Jersey from the gas. Hmmm...
New York probes 'gas-like odour'
Authorities in New York are investigating a persistent gas smell across a large part of lower Manhattan.
Police said they were dealing with many reports of a strange gas-like smell, but Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he was confident it was "not dangerous".
A stretch of the commuter train service between New York and New Jersey was temporarily halted, and some Manhattan office buildings were evacuated.
The US Department of Homeland Security ruled out any link to terrorism.Mr Bloomberg said there were no indications of high levels of natural gas on New York's energy network.
"It may just be an unpleasant smell," he told a news conference, but said investigations were continuing.
And the BBC's Jeremy Cooke, in New York, says the city is returning to normal.
Across the Hudson River in New Jersey, officials said the source of the smell was a gas leak originating in the Chelsea district of Manhattan, but that could not immediately be confirmed.
"We are getting several calls of a foul odour. Our units are responding. It's in various parts of the city," a police spokesman said.
'Spread wide'
Office worker Brandon Atkins told the BBC that the fumes seeped into his Manhattan building.
"Most people evacuated although the smell was worse on the street," he said.
"My wife in Jersey City told me she could also smell it there so it seems to cover quite a large territory."
New York residents contacted the BBC, describing the smell as a mix of natural gas and burnt rubber, or saying it was a strong methane odour.
Gas supplier Consolidated Edison, which pipes gas into much of New York City, said it was investigating the reports, but told US TV network MSNBC that there was "no abnormal flow" of gas in Manhattan.
There was a previous report of a gas-like smell in August last year in parts of Queens and Staten Island, the Associated Press news agency said.
Natural gas is mainly composed of methane, but has no smell itself.
An odour is added to the compound to allow its early detection in the even of a leak.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/6241927.stm Ruled out, eh? Why even bother investigating if you know it's not dangerous, it's not linked to terrorism, it's not flammable natural gas, and it's only "unpleasant?"
Friggin' blowhard know-nothing overlords.