NEW YORK (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) -- At least eight people were attacked in the subway system over the holiday weekend, including a man who was stabbed in lower Manhattan and a woman who was bashed in the face with a pipe in the Bronx, police said as a new subway safety plan gets put into action starting Monday.
The latest assault was just after 2 a.m. Monday aboard a southbound 4 train at the 167th Street station at River Avenue in the Highbridge section of the Bronx. Police said a 30-year-old woman was struck in the face with a metal pipe.
The woman had been arguing with a man when he took out the pipe and beat her with it, according to police.
The woman got off the train at the station and called police, while her attacker remained aboard the train and has not been arrested.
The woman, who declined medical care, told officers the man lashed out after asking her to stop talking with a friend of hers.
Hours earlier in Chinatown, a 31-year-old man was stabbed in the arm and back around 6:30 p.m. aboard a southbound 6 train at the Canal Street station.
He was taken to Bellevue Hospital in stable condition.
It’s unclear what led to the stabbing. No arrests have been reported.
The assaults followed five stabbings or slashings in the transit system earlier in the weekend.
Around 9 p.m. Saturday, a 31-year-old man was stabbed on a train at the 116th Street station in Morningside Heights. He was taken to a hospital and is expected to survive.
A half-hour before that stabbing, a 24-year-old man was stabbed in the leg at the 168th Street station in Washington Heights around 8:30 p.m. as two teens tried to rob him, according to police. He refused medical attention.
Two female teenagers were also arrested and accused of slashing a 74-year-old man in the face, pushing him to the ground and taking his cell phone on Saturday afternoon after he argued with them while they smoked on a 2 train in the Grand Concourse section of the Bronx.
Also on Saturday afternoon, a 20-year-old woman was stabbed three times in the stomach during a dispute with a man just before 3 p.m. at the Van Siclen Avenue station in East New York. Police said the man punched her in the back of the head, leading to the argument that ended with him pulling a knife and attacking her. The victim was hospitalized in stable condition. Police released images of the suspect as they search for him.
And early Saturday morning, a 46-year-old man was stabbed multiple times during an attempted robbery by three men around 3 a.m. at the Jamaica-Van Wyck station in Kew Gardens.
The violence comes as the city begins deploying more teams of police officers and mental health workers to the subway to start enforcing rules more strictly.
It’s part of an aggressive push by Mayor Eric Adams to remove homeless and mentally ill people from the transit system that begins Monday.
Adams announced the plan with Gov. Kathy Hochul last week, saying New Yorkers can expect to see the teams at high-traffic areas or areas where there have been increased reports of crime.
“People tell me about their fear of using the system, and we are going to ensure that fear is not New York’s reality,” Adams said.
Hochul said the state was working to get more psychiatric beds at hospitals available by increasing the amount of money hospitals receive for having the beds.
Some homeless advocates have pushed back against the plan, saying it was “criminalizing homelessness.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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