NYPD arrests man carrying 2 cans of gasoline into St Patrick's Cathedral

New York: A man was arrested Wednesday night after entering St Patrick's Cathedral in New York carrying two cans of gasoline, lighter fluid and butane lighters, police said, just days after a fire badly damaged the Notre Dame Cathedral

in Paris.

New York Police Department (NYPD) deputy commissioner John Miller said the arrested man claimed

he was taking a shortcut through the cathedral after his car ran out of fuel, but his answers were "inconsistent and evasive."

"We don't know what

his mindset was, what his motive was," Miller told a press conference on the steps of the cathedral, a neo-Gothic structure in the heart of Manhattan.

The man was confronted by a cathedral security officer and was told he cannot go inside carrying those items, according to the police.

"At that point, some gasoline apparently spills out onto the floor as he's turned around," Miller said.

After an alarm was raised, officers from the New York Police Department's counter-terrorism bureau caught up to the man and arrested him after questioning. "His basic story was he was cutting through the cathedral... that his car had run out of gas," Miller said.

"We took a look at the vehicle. It was not out of gas and at that point he was taken into custody." Miller said the 37-year-old suspect was "known to police," who are currently looking into his background.