New York (CNN)A manhunt is underway for a subway passenger who put on a gas mask, deployed a gas canister and then began shooting at commuters as a smoke-filled train pulled into a Brooklyn subway station during Tuesday morning rush hour, authorities said.
At least 29 people were treated at three nearby hospitals for injuries, none of which are life-threatening, according to hospital representatives. Of the injured, 10 people were shot, while others were treated for smoke inhalation, shrapnel and panic in the attack, FDNY First Deputy Commissioner Laura Kavanagh said.
The shooter, who fled the scene, was described as a 5-foot-5-inch Black man with a heavy build wearing a green construction vest and a gray hooded sweatshirt.
The FBI is working with the NYPD on the investigation and is following "every viable lead," said Michael J. Driscoll, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI New York Field Office.
Investigators have cellphone video from an eyewitness showing the suspect, a law enforcement source told CNN. Investigators were also looking for a U-Haul van allegedly connected to the incident, according to internal NYPD emails.
That truck was found in Brooklyn, two law enforcement officials told CNN. Internal emails from top commanders of the New York Police Department do not indicate how the van might be connected to the shooting.
The mass shooting occurred just before 8:30 a.m. as a Manhattan-bound N train neared the 36th Street subway station in Brooklyn's Sunset Park, a working-class neighborhood far from the city's tourist hubs. Witnesses riding the subway said smoke filled the train as it moved between stations, causing havoc aboard, and trails of blood were visible on the floor.
The suspect shot people on the train and on the station platform, NYPD commissioner Keechant Sewell said. First responders arrived to the station and found gunshot victims and others injured in the chaos.
Anthony Valentino, who lives a block from the subway station, said he saw emergency responders outside his home and so went out to find people bloodied and in shock.
"I saw two people holding up a man who was all bloodied, blood all over his hands, and he was in shock, walking like a zombie before sitting to the floor," Valentino said. "I felt horrible for him."
The incident comes amid a rise in shootings in New York over the past two years and a particular rise in violence on the subway that has become a focus of Mayor Eric Adams' administration. Transit crime, broadly, is up 68% compared to last year, numbers closer to where they were at pre-pandemic levels, according to an NYPD summary of statistics current through Sunday.
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