A man waiting for the subway in Manhattan was pushed in front of an oncoming train on Tuesday afternoon, but survived with injuries to his leg and head, according to the New York police department.
The apparent attack comes less than two weeks after a woman died after being set on fire on a stationary train in New York, an act of violence that horrified the city.
In the new incident on Tuesday, which was captured on video, a man approached another man, and pushed him from behind onto the subway track, just as a southbound train was pulling into the station at around 1.35pm ET, a police department spokesperson said.
The incident happened at the 18th Street subway station in the Chelsea neighborhood in the heart of Manhattan, several blocks west of Union Square.
The police have one man in custody who is a person of interest in the incident, but have not yet filed charges, NYPD spokesperson Austin Glickman said. The man who was pushed in front of the train was transported to Bellevue hospital in critical, but stable, condition. He is 45, the Associated Press reported.
The power on the southbound line of the station was shut off for about an hour to facilitate the rescue of the man who had been pushed, and the investigation into what had happened, according to a spokesperson for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Service was fully restored on the line by 4pm ET, the spokesperson said.
The woman who was set on fire earlier this month was identified on Tuesday as 57-year-old Debrina Kawam, of Toms River, New Jersey. The suspect in the murder, Sebastián Zapeta, has been charged with first-degree murder.
Prosecutors allege Zapeta on the morning of 22 December set the woman’s clothing on fire and fanned the flames using a shirt while she was asleep on a Brooklyn F train. The suspect reportedly told authorities he did not know what had happened.
Personal safety in the subways is generally comparable to safety in the city as a whole. But life-threatening crimes such as stabbings and shoves spread alarm about the trains that have carried more than 1 billion riders over the course of this year.
Police figures show major crimes on subways were down this year through November, compared with the same period last year, but killings rose from five to nine.
A person died in March after being shoved in front of a subway train in East Harlem.
The Associated Press contributed reporting
