NEW YORK / OSLO (VG) Police are hunting for a suspected perpetrator wearing a gas mask and work clothes after the shooting drama. Five people are critically injured.
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The violent drama took place just before 08.30 local time, and fire crews responded to reports of smoke at the station on 36th Street at Sunset Park in Brooklyn.
The fire service informs at a press conference at 18.15 Norwegian time that 16 people have been taken to local hospitals.
The injured should not be in life-threatening danger, says Keechant Sewell of the New York police. There are no explosives left on the subway.
The suspect, who is said to have been wearing a gas mask and a yellow work vest, has not been arrested.
– No more mass shootings, no more disturbances of everyday life. It must stop now. We are tired of reading about mass shootings, says Governor Kathy Hochul.
At least ten people must have been shot in the incident, which must also have involved some form of smoke-generating device. Five are critically injured, but the condition is stable.
According to local media, the police are hunting for a suspected perpetrator who is said to have been wearing a gas mask, an orange vest and wearing a work bag.
Eyewitness Sam Carcamo tells a local radio station that he saw smoke flooding out when the subway door opened on the platform.
– The door opened to a disaster. There was smoke and blood and people screaming, he says.
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Several photos on social media show the scene. There are several people on the floor on the platform inside the station. Several are clearly injured, and the platform is partially smeared with blood. A person appears to have been shot in the thigh.
Ordinary police, the SWAT emergency unit and bomb squads are all at the scene. The same goes for firefighters and a number of ambulances. VG’s reporter on the spot has seen police on the roofs.
The mayor of the city asks people to stay away from the area. The school authorities state that the students stay indoors in the Brooklyn area as a safety measure.
Everyone who is nearby has received a text message from the police to stay away from a large area where a police operation is taking place.
ABC News reports that it must have happened on a train on the N-line in a northbound direction. They also report that there are several incidents, and that five people have been shot.
It is currently unclear whether the shooting happened on board a subway train, or whether it happened at the station on 36th Street at Sunset Park in Brooklyn, or at the station at 25th Street at Greenwood Heights in the same neighborhood.
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According to local television station ABC7, four people were found shot at the station on 36th Street in Sunset Park. Another person was found shot at the next station on 25th Street in Greenwood Heights just before 08.30 local time.
New York police say no explosives were found at the scene. The local fire brigade previously reported that “several unexploded units” had been found.
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