NYC Subway Train Drags Man to His Death

Commuters packed onto a subway platform at New York City's Grand Central Terminal witnessed a horrifying scene Tuesday as a man was snagged by a moving train and dragged into a tunnel. The unidentified 39-year-old was walking on the yellow caution line on the edge of the platform around 7:20pm when either his clothing or the strap of his bag was caught on a moving train, reports the New York Times. Citing a law enforcement official, the paper notes a surveillance camera captured the moment the man was dragged, thrown against a staircase, then pulled into the tunnel.

The man struck an electrical box on the tracks, which set off a flash and alerted train operators to trouble, per the Times and WABC. Found with "severe trauma to the body," he was pronounced dead when paramedics arrived, police say. Per the Times, there were nearly 900 incidents of a person being on subway tracks or hit by a train in NYC in 2017. Some of those people were drunk, urinating, or had dropped something. Police are investigating if alcohol was a factor in Tuesday's tragedy, reports the New York Post. Service on the 7 line was suspended for hours as a result, per NBC New York. (A young mother died on a NYC subway platform last month.)