BROOKLYN — A giant banner of Vladimir Putin was mysteriously hung from the Manhattan Bridge Thursday.
Posts on social media showed the banner — which featured a picture of the Russian president above the word "Peacemaker" — hanging from the bridge around 2 p.m.
Multiple police officers responded to the scene to remove the 20-by-30-foot banner as helicopters circled overhead, but traffic was not stopped on the bridge, a witness and an NYPD spokesman said.
"Seems to me like they didn't need so many officers just to take down one sign," witness Artur Recordà Ferrer, who was visiting from Barcelona, said in Spanish.
The banner's appearance was first reported by Gothamist.
The Department of Transportation referred all inquiries to the NYPD.
NYPD officers removed the banner and took it back to the Fifth Precinct, the spokesman added. There were no arrests and the investigation is ongoing.