AT least 16 people have been injured after a masked suspect opened fire in the latest attack to hit the New York City subway.
It comes just months after two people were killed in a vicious stabbing spree and a woman was pushed onto the tracks in what police branded a "senseless act of violence".
Chaos unfolded during the Tuesday morning rush hour at 36th Street subway station in Sunset Park, Brooklyn.
Gunshots were heard while photos from inside the station showed several bloodied people on the platform.
At least 16 people were hospitalized while 8 people were shot, according to the New York Fire Department.
The scary scene reportedly occurred onboard a Manhattan-bound N train arriving at 36th street.
NYPD data shows that at least 467 transit crimes have already been reported in 2022 – up 80 percent compared to this time last year.
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Curtis Sliwa, the founder of the Guardian Angels, told The Sun that the 6 train between 125th Street and Hunts Point “is no man’s land” and the 4 and D trains between 167th Street or 161st Street and the Fordham Road and Kingsbridge stops are just as dangerous.
In February, a stabbing spree saw two people killed, while in January, a stranger shoved a woman in front of an oncoming train at Times Square station.
The Sun looks back at some of the attacks to hit the New York City subway in recent months.
SUBWAY ‘RIPPER’
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Rigoberto Lopez, 21, was arrested in February in connection to a vicious stabbing spree that took place on the subway.
The frenzied man knifed two people to death and left two others critically injured on the city's A-train line.
Lopez was charged with two counts of murder and two counts of attempted murder.
New York Police Department Deputy Chief Brian McGee said: “They were all unprovoked attacks, and the victims didn’t initiate anything. The victims didn’t initiate anything.”
Police said Lopez is mentally ill and has spent time in at least one hospital psychiatric ward.
His last known address was a motel in Gowanus, Brooklyn, which used to house homeless people.
Lopez had already been arrested four times, two of them for assault and criminal contempt against his father, cops said.
Carlos Martinez, 67, was stabbed as he pushed his walker along the southbound platform at the 181st Street station in Washington Heights.
He told cops that his attacker screamed: "I am going to kill you."
Martinez was stabbed in the right knee and left buttocks.
Hours later, a man was found stabbed to death but slumped in his seat on an A train in Far Rockaway.
Then, Claudine Roberts, 42, was found sprawled dead in a pool of blood under her subway seat.
Roberts was declared dead after arriving at New York Presbyterian-Allen Hospital.
And, a 43-year-old man was randomly stabbed as he slept on a stairwell at West 181st Street.
‘RACIST ATTACKS’
Melissa Alyssa Go, 40, was standing on the platform when suspect Simon Martial, 61, pushed her onto the tracks.
NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell branded the attack a “senseless, absolutely senseless act of violence”.
Martial admitted responsibility for the attack and claimed he was “God”, according to reports.
When quizzed about his motive, he shouted: “Yeah because I’m God. Yes, I did. I’m God, I can do it,”
“She stole my f**king jacket, that’s why.”
Cops said Martial had previously approached another woman, who was not Asian, at the station, but she became alarmed and moved away.
After the attack, Martial took a train to Canal Street and turned himself into transit officers, police said.
'I AM GOD'
And, GuiYing Ma, from Queens, died after being hit with a rock.
She was struck in the head while sweeping a sidewalk in November.
The 62-year-old suffered brain damage and was in a coma.
She died on February 22 from “complications of blunt impact injury of the head”, according to her family.
Yang Gao told NY1: “When I first got the call from my father, I was in shock.
“What I lost is my mother, the dearest person that’s closest to me."
His parents had left China four years ago and moved to America so they could support their family.
Cops ruled her death a homicide and suspect Elisaul Perez, 33, was arrested and charged.
HAMMER ATTACK
Nina Rothschild claimed she was hit 14 times when she was struck with a hammer as she was walking inside Queens Plaza subway station on February 24.
She claimed she was approached from behind before she was assaulted by the suspect.
Cops identified the suspect as William Blount. He pled not guilty to attempted murder.
Rothschild told NBC New York that she remembered the ordeal from “start to finish”.
She said: “I remember starting to go down the subway steps and feeling this blow to my head.”
Rothschild thought it was a baseball bat before she yelled “stop, stop, stop”.
She suffered injuries to her legs and could hardly walk after the attack.
Rothschild can now walk but the attack has left her nervous about taking the subway.
BOX CUTTER STABBING
On April 5, an unidentified man, 40, was stabbed with a box-cutter during an argument inside a station in Lower Manhattan, according to police.
The pair had been arguing on a northbound four train.
They got off at Wall Street before the attacker hit the victim with a boxcutter on the staircase, according to the New York Post.
It’s not known what caused the argument but the victim suffered non-life-threatening injuries.
Statistics released by the NYPD earlier this month showed that in the first months of 2022, major crimes have spiked a staggering 45 percent when compared to the same period last year.
There has been a near 44 percent increase in robberies, a 61 percent increase in grand larceny incidents, and a 35 percent increase in rape reports.
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Murders are down 7.3 percent overall but spiked by 10 percent in February, while hate crime attacks have rocketed by more than 113 percent.
Before the pandemic, crime rates in NYC reached historic lows for more than three decades.
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