NEW YORK (WCBS 880) – Someone hurled a firework out of a van amid a dispute outside a Queens synagogue on Friday night, causing an explosion on a sidewalk, police said.
No one was injured in the explosion outside Congregation Shaare Tova on Lefferts Boulevard in Kew Gardens around 8:30 p.m.
Police said it appears there was some sort of dispute between a person on the street and two people in a van.
Someone in the van tossed a firework onto the sidewalk, which exploded as the van sped away, police said.
Markiel Babekov told WCBS-TV he was in the synagogue at the time.
“We were in the middle of a service, and we just heard a huge bang, and everybody was just a little bit kind of alarmed. We were not sure what it was a bang about,” Babekov said.
The NYPD said it appeared the explosion was “unrelated to the nearby synagogue.”
Detectives from the 102nd Precinct are investigating the incident.