A homemade device was flung into the front room of the National Press Building offices of Tass, the Soviet news agency, at around 10:30 this morning, causing considerable smoke damage and some fire but injuring none and apparently not affecting the communications apparatus. Police Capt. C.E, Rinaldi showed newsmen a scorched cannister found just inside the door. The wall against which it lay was also blackened. The only visible fire damage was a burned pillow on a chair near the front door. Smoke billowed through the inside corridor on the second floor of the press building.
Rinaldi said he was in “no position to say right now who or why” in regard to the placing of the device, but that it was “safe to assume that it was a deliberate act.” He called the damage “minor.” Rinaldi and Lt. A.J. Mercurio said witnesses claimed they saw a man running down the corridor. Tass has been the scene of three demonstrations for Soviet Jewry in the past 18 months by Jewish Defense League members. But a JDL spokesman denied that the JDL was responsible for the smoke bomb. He said, however, that the organization applauded the act whoever was responsible.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
