New York hotel housekeeper hospitalized after cleaning up mysterious substance

A maid was hospitalized on Tuesday after coming into contact with a mysterious white powder in a downtown Manhattan hotel room, authorities said.

The woman was cleaning a room at the Park Hyatt hotel on West 57th Street when she discovered a « white powdery substance » near the bathroom sink and began to feel dizzy and nauseous around 1:20 p.m., the police said. police.

The FDNY responded and dabbed surfaces in the room. They tested the collected samples and found a possible trace of an explosive substance, NYPD Deputy Chief James McCarthy said at a press conference.

The NYPD bomb squad and FBI then responded to the hotel and evacuated the entire eleventh floor as a precaution and collected their own samples from inside the room, McCarthy said.

Their tests found no evidence of potentially harmful material, and investigators believe the FDNY’s initial test was a false positive, McCarthy said.

Yet later on Tuesday evening, police arrested a man they believe was the source of the mysterious powder, sources said.

McCarthy had said the suspect, who had 16 previous arrests for low-level crimes, snuck into the hotel room after a family left Sunday morning and spent the night there.

The man is believed to have retrieved a hotel card key from the room that a family member had dropped. He entered the room at 8:30 p.m. Sunday and left at 10:30 a.m. the next morning, McCarthy said.

The unidentified suspect is known to have entered hotels, he added.

Police said there was no threat to the public.

« I want to emphasize to all New Yorkers and visitors that there is no credible threat to the city at this time, » McCarthy said Tuesday night.