New York City police are hunting for a suspect who filled a rush-hour subway train with smoke before shooting several people.
Officials said the gunfire wounded 10 people, with at least 16 in total injured in some way in the attack at the 36th Street station in Brooklyn’s Sunset Park area.
Five people are in a critical but stable condition, according to the New York Fire Department commissioner.
NYPD commissioner Keechant Sewell said the attack is not being investigated as terrorism, and confirmed there were no life-threatening injuries.
The gunman sought in the attack “is still on the loose” and dangerous, New York state governor Kathy Hochul said at a press conference.
According to several sources, preliminary information indicated that the suspect who fled was a man wearing a construction vest and a gas mask.
Investigators believe the suspect deployed a smoke device to distract people before opening fire.
Video footage taken at the scene revealed smoke and people pouring out of a subway carriage.
In other video and photos, people tend to bloodied passengers lying on the platform, some amid what appear to be puddles of blood, and another person is on the floor of a subway carriage.
Fire and police officials were investigating reports that there had been an explosion, but the police department tweeted that there were “no active explosive devices at this time”.
Multiple smoke devices were found on the scene, said mayoral spokesperson Fabien Levy, who confirmed the initial shooting injury count.
At least 11 people are being treated in hospital following the incident.
US President Joe Biden and attorney general Merrick Garland were briefed on the incident, as was governor Kathy Hochul.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who is isolating following a positive Covid-19 test on Sunday, was briefed at the mayor’s residence.
The incident happened on a subway line that runs through south Brooklyn in an area predominantly home to Hispanic and Asian communities, a 15-minute train ride from Manhattan.
Local schools, including Sunset Park High School across the street, were locked down after the incident.
A sea of emergency lights was visible from at least a dozen blocks away, where a police cordon was set up.
Watch as NYPD Executives and City and State Officials provide an update on the shooting incident in Brooklyn. https://t.co/xGGlDJ6UQI
— NYPD NEWS (@NYPDnews) April 12, 2022
New York City has faced a spate a shootings and high-profile incidents in recent months, including on the city’s subways. One of the most shocking was in January when a woman was pushed to her death in front of a train by a stranger.
Mr Adams, a Democrat a little over 100 days into his term, has made cracking down on crime – especially on the subways – a focus of his early administration, pledging to send more police officers into stations and platforms for regular patrols.
It was not immediately clear whether officers had already been inside the station when the shootings occurred.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here