A woman was pronounced dead after being found on fire inside a subway car in Brooklyn on Sunday morning, and the police said that “criminality is suspected” in the death.
Police officers responded just before 7:30 a.m. to a report of a woman on fire in the middle car of a stationary F train at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue subway station, a spokesman for the New York Police Department said.
Emergency responders extinguished the fire and the woman was pronounced dead at the scene, the spokesman said.
The investigation is ongoing and “criminality is suspected,” the spokesman said, noting that the woman’s death appeared to be a homicide. It was not clear how she caught fire.
The authorities were reviewing camera footage. The woman’s age and identity were not immediately released on Sunday.
The medical examiner’s office will determine the cause of death, the police spokesman said.
A spokeswoman for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority referred inquiries about the episode to the Police Department.
She said that there was no service in either direction on the F train between Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue and either Church Avenue or Kings Highway as of midday Sunday. “Expect F delays in both directions,” she said.
She added that the last stop on southbound F trains would be either Kings Highway or Church Avenue, “where they will turn back for northbound service.”
The episode took place as subway safety has become a top concern for riders and workers.
Last month, a morning shooting on the Upper West Side interrupted transit service after a gunman fled into a nearby subway station. Commuters had to take shelter on subway car floors, and trains were delayed citywide as the police searched for the man, who was later arrested.
In February, transit workers stopped performing their duties during the morning commute after an overnight slashing attack injured a conductor on an A train.
The following week, Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York announced that she would deploy 1,000 members of the State Police and National Guard to the transit system after a series of violent crimes on the subway.
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