Apparent Subway-Train Suicide at Times Square

Librado Romero/The New York Times A person killed by a subway train at Times Square was removed from the scene Tuesday morning.

Thousands of subway riders had their morning commute disrupted Tuesday morning when a person was crushed by an oncoming train at the Times Square station, leaving bystanders both shocked and fascinated by the macabre scene.

Even as emergency workers struggled to remove the body, which was lodged beneath an uptown 2 train, more than a dozen onlookers across the platform knelt, bent over and laid flat on the cold concrete to snap photos with their phones and catch a glimpse of the victim.

“Get up off the platform,” one offcer yelled as the police tried to disperse the crowd. “We got one person on the tracks, we don’t need another.”

Suicide deaths in New York City’s subway system are not uncommon, with dozens every year, but two recent high-profile cases of people being pushed to their death on subway tracks have stirred a lingering fear held by many city dwellers.

The person killed on Tuesday appears to have either jumped or fallen onto the tracks, according to the police and witnesses.

There were conflicting reports of whether it was a man or a woman. The police did not immediately identify the victim.

Christopher Velez, 22, said he saw a young woman step in front of the oncoming train at around 10 a.m.

She was wearing a blue warm-up suit and standing on the platform by herself, he said, when, without a word of warning, she stepped in front of the oncoming train.

“She was on her own and just quiet,” he said. As the train screeched to a hal! t, he said, “a lot of people were screaming and crying.”

“I cried for a little bit,” he said.

Still shaken, he added: “I really don’t feel like taking the subway anymore.”

Javina Pilgrim, 34, was on the train that hit the victim.

She also believed it was a young woman who jumped.

“These trains really should slow down when they are coming into the station,” she said.

It was not the first time she had witnessed a grisly incident on the subway. Several years ago, she said, she was waiting for the train at the 96th Street station when someone else was struck.

On Tuesday, it quickly became clear that the victim was dead.

Workers wrapped the body in a white bag, secured it with red straps and pulled it from under the train.

The aftermath on the tracks was captured by more than a dozen onlookers on their smartphones.