At least 16 people were injured, 10 of them by gunfire, in the subway in Brooklyn, New York, during the Tuesday morning rush, officials said, after a man released a canister of smoke and opened fire on an N train.

At around 8.24am (local time), as the train pulled into the 36th Street Station in the Sunset Park neighbourhood, the man, who was wearing a construction vest, put on a gas mask before firing shots that hit people on the train and the nearby platform, said Police Commissioner Keechant L. Sewell.

The fire department said that five people were in critical condition, but none of them had suffered life-threatening injuries. The violent episode came amid a heightened fear of crime as New York City struggles to recover from the pandemic.

Police officers were called at 8.30am to the 36th Street station, where the D, N and R lines all stop, after receiving reports of smoke and gunshots. The shooting set off panic and chaos as riders fled from the train and the station through billowing smoke.

John Butsikares, 15, a freshman at Brooklyn Technical High School, said his ride on a north-bound R train from Bay Ridge had been calm — until the train approached the 36th Street station. When the doors opened, the conductor directed passengers waiting on the platform to rush inside.

“I didn’t know what was happening,” he said. “There was just panic.”

At a news briefing, commissioner Sewell said that the police were seeking a man with a heavy build who had been wearing a green construction vest and grey sweatshirt.

Governor Kathy Hochul advised New Yorkers to remain “vigilant and alert”, saying “this is an active shooter situation right now in the City of New York”.

Videos posted on social media showed frightened riders pouring from a train and onto the platform as smoke filled the station. Commissioner Sewell said that no active explosive devices had been found at the scene or on subway trains.

“This is not being investigated as an act of terrorism at this time,” she said, adding that officers had not identified a motive. Patrick Berry, 41, said he was waiting at the 25th Street station, one stop north, when an R train arrived at around 8.30am.

He and his 3-year-old daughter boarded, but the train didn’t move.

“Then suddenly, from the front of the train, I heard people screaming, ‘Run, run, run! Go, go, go!’ And then all these people came sprinting past our car, and I just felt like, ‘Oh my god, this is a stampede,’” Berry said.

“People started pushing out from behind. So I grabbed my daughter, and we ran too.”

Towards the front of the train, three victims were being attended to by bystanders. A uniformed police officer approached, asking passengers to call 911 because his radio was not working. One teenager, who identified himself as Fitim, had a hole in his track pants that he said came from a bullet.

The area around the 36th Street Station was surrounded by investigators and cordoned off. On Fourth Avenue near 35th Street, dozens of police vehicles with flashing lights stretched down at least four blocks.

Officers blocked traffic as residents stood in small groups huddled on the sidewalk, seeking cover from the rain. At least two helicopters flew overhead.

“We saw an ambulance coming out with a stretcher with a person on it,” said Silvana Guerrero, 20, who works at nearby Sunset Bagels Cafe & Grill. “Their leg was injured — I’m not sure exactly what went on or what was going on. And then, we saw after that, two ambulances coming out, with two people, like, hopping on one leg.”

President Biden had been briefed on the shooting, officials said. Mayor Eric Adams, who tested positive for Covid-19 on Sunday and is currently isolating, was also monitoring the situation.

“We will not allow New Yorkers to be terrorised, even by a single individual,” Adams, a former police officer, said in a video message. “NUPD is searching for the suspect at large, and we will find him.”

Eight people with injuries from the shooting were being treated at NYU Langone Hospital-Brooklyn, said a spokeswoman for the hospital system, Lisa Greiner. Their injuries included gunshot wounds and smoke inhalation; all eight were in stable condition.

(New York Times News Service)