NEW YORK — Two people suffered burns after someone tossed a Molotov cocktail into a Lower East Side beauty salon Sunday afternoon, police said.
A 46-year-old man was taken to New York Presbyterian-Weill Cornell Medical Center with non-life-threatening burns and was being questioned about the arson, said police.
A 60-year-old woman was taken to the same hospital with burns. She is also expected to survive her injuries.
Police and firefighters were called to 129 Eldridge St. at about 3 p.m. Sunday in response to reports that a man lit a bomb in the Sa Sa Spa, a nail and beauty salon.
Doneliza Joaquin, 34, an urban planner from the Lower East Side, said the fire erupted as she was dining with a friend from Los Angeles at Lena, a French restaurant several doors down from the salon.
“We were sitting having a cocktail and we saw some smoke,” she said. She said that when they went to check out the commotion in front of the spa, she saw that someone was trapped inside.
“We heard and saw the door was rattling and people ran over to try to break the door with a black stool,” Joaquin said.
She said a man ran from the scene wearing a khaki jacket. “He clearly did not want to talk to anyone,” Joaquin said. “He seemed like he wanted to get away.”
Phillip Casaceli, a waiter at Lena, said that he saw people trying to free the woman trapped inside.
“I ran back to the restaurant, grabbed the fire extinguisher and a couple of people came out and their faces were all full of black soot. It was pretty intense.”
No arrests have been made and the investigation is continuing, police said.
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