Hero cops [UPDATE: and hero t-shirt vendor!] stop incompetent terrorist from igniting Times Square car bomb

That, at least, is my initial take on this Daily News account of tonight’s events in Times Square:

Heroic cops stopped a car bomb from blowing up in the heart of Times Square Saturday night, officials told the Daily News.

Two female cops patrolling the area noticed a man fumbling with something in the back of a Nissan SUV parked on the southwest corner of 45th St. and Broadway about 7 p.m. The man saw the officers looking and took off running.

The two cops went to the car and saw smoke, clusters of canisters and heard something fizzing, a source said. The quick-acting cops called for backup, and the bomb squad was on the way as the Crossroads of the World was evacuated.

“It looks as if the perp was trying to light it up, and was interrupted by the cops, panicked and took off,” a law enforcement source said.

“It looked like someone tried to detonate it and we got to it in time,” another source said. “This is a big deal. It has the makings of a real car bomb.”

Perhaps so, but it’s hard to believe a hardened Al Qaeda-type terrorist would “take off running” at the first sign of mild suspicion by passing officers — or, for that matter, would be visibly, publicly “fumbling with something” in the first place. Anything’s possible, but I suspect a hairbrained, homegrown loner type of situation here. It’ll be interesting to hear how destructive the potential blast would have been.

Regardless, thank God no one was hurt. And way to go, NYPD.

UPDATE: And way to go, “quick-thinking street vendor” who by the way served in Vietnam. The Daily News has updated its story:

A quick-thinking street vendor and three heroic cops stopped a madman from detonating a car bomb in the heart of Times Square Saturday night, law enforcement officials told the Daily News.

The T-shirt vendor – a Vietnam vet – told Officer Wayne Rhatigan there was smoke coming from a Nissan SUV on the southwest corner of 45th St. and Broadway about 7 p.m., sources said.

Rhatigan approached the car, saw the smoke, and sprang into action.

“I did a lap around the vehicle. The inside was smoking,” Rhatigan told the Daily News Saturday night. “I smelled gunpowder and knew it might blow. I thought it might blow any second.”

He grabbed two rookie female cops patrolling the area. Together, they pushed hundreds of people away from the scene as they called for backup, he said.

The Fire Department and bomb squad rushed to the scene.

What they found was stunning: a running SUV packed with three propane tanks, two red 5-gallon plastic jugs of gasoline, a clock, electrical components and a canister of gunpowder, police sources said.

“We are very lucky,” Mayor Bloomberg said at an early morning press conference at the scene, still wearing a tuxedo and red bow tie. “Thanks to alert New Yorkers and professional police officers we avoided what could have been a very deadly event.”