Hoax bomb scare at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Mar 14, 2026
Lower photo: a police Bomb Squad technician enters Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center on Saturday, after sources say a former employee claimed to have an explosive in his bag. (Image: NBC New York)
A former employee of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center is being held for a mental health e
xamination after a bomb scare Saturday, law enforcement sources told NBC New York.
The incident began shortly after noon when a 39-year-old man walked into one of the world’s best-known cancer hospitals and left a bag with a note stating “a bomb was inside the bag,” the sources said.
In a social media post, MSK said “security personnel identified a potential threat in the lobby at 1275 York Ave. and promptly notified the NYPD.”
The New York Police Dept. bomb squad was called to the facility on the Upper East Side after the NYPD’s Emergency Service unit sealed off the area around York Avenue and East 68th Street. No evacuations were ordered.
Within three hours, the bomb squad determined that there was nothing dangerous in the bag, a source added.
The man acccused of bringing the hoax device to the hospital has not been publicly identified. He was taken to NewYork-Presbyterian hospital.
NYPD units sealed off York Ave. near East 68th Street on the Upper East Side after a man walked inside Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center Saturday, claiming to have a bomb. (Image: NBC New York)
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