Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly detailed the plan at a press briefing Thursday afternoon in New York City.
Bloomberg said Dzhokhar Tsarnaev told federal investigators that he and his brother, Tamerlan, had chosen Times Square after spontaneously deciding to set off the remaining explosives in New York City.
According to Kelly, the pair had a pressure cooker bomb and five pipe bombs.
New York City officials said they learned of the plan from FBI agents Wednesday night.
“The surviving attacker revealed New York City was next on their list of targets,” Bloomberg said.
Federal authorities Monday charged Tsarnaev with using a “weapon of mass destruction,” three days after he was found alive in parked boat in the backyard of a Watertown, Mass., home.
Bloomberg said Thursday that New York City police take any threats seriously and will continue to do everything they can to keep residents and visitors safe.
“It’s a dangerous world but you’re probably safer here than you are anywhere else in the world,” he said.
“We have never let our guard down,” he added.
Click here to follow Daily Voice Lewisboro and receive free news updates.