BROOKLYN,
United States — At
least 13 people were injured during a rush-hour shooting at a subway station in
the New York borough of
Brooklyn Tuesday, where authorities said “several
undetonated devices” were recovered amid chaotic scenes.
اضافة اعلان
Ambulances lined the street outside the 36th
Street subway station, where a New York police spokeswoman told AFP officers
responded to a 911 call of a person shot at 8:27am (12:27 GMT).
Unverified video footage posted on Instagram
appeared to show passengers tending to bloodied victims lying on a smoke-filled
station platform.
The images showed subway staff shepherding
panicked passengers, some still clutching their morning coffee cups, off the
platform and into the carriages of a stationary train. A sign saying 36th
Street can be seen in the background.
An unidentified person can be heard saying
that a fire had been set in the train car, and that he saw “at least eight
people” shot.
According to NBC, citing
NYPD and senior law
enforcement officials, a man in a gas mask and orange construction vest may
have tossed a smoke canister on the platform to distract the rush hour crowd.
The suspect was still at large, according to
Manhattan borough president Mark Levine.
The city’s fire department gave a toll of “13
injuries at this time,” while ABC News quoted police sources as saying at least
five people were shot in the incident
The police department tweeted that there were
“NO active explosive devices at this time.”
“Please stay clear of the area” the NYPD
tweeted, urging witnesses to contact a police tip line with any information.
The White House said President Joe Biden had
been briefed on the incident and was in communication with New York officials.
New York governor Kathy Hochul tweeted that
first responders were on the scene and promised regular updates as the
investigation unfolds.
Mass casualty shootings happen with relative
frequency in the
US, where firearms are involved in approximately 40,000 deaths
a year, including suicides, according to the Gun Violence Archive website.
Shootings in New York City have risen this
year, and the uptick in violent gun crime has been a central focus for
Mayor Eric Adams since he took office in January. Through April 3, shooting incidents
rose to 296 from 260 during the same period last year, according to police statistics.
The incident came just a day after
US President Joe Biden announced new gun control measures, increasing restrictions
on so-called “ghost guns”, the difficult-to-trace weapons that can be assembled
at home.
Lax gun laws and a constitutionally guaranteed right to
bear arms have repeatedly stymied attempts to clamp down on the number of
weapons in circulation, despite greater controls being favored by the majority
of Americans.
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