Washington: Police in New York city have mounted an intense manhunt for a lone gunman who set off two smoke bombs and opened fire in a subway car, injuring more than 20 people during a morning rush-hour attack, Khaleej Times reported.
Police said they believe that the gunman acted alone and immediately after the attack fled the crime scene.
According to the police a U-Haul van is believed to have been used in the shooting which was later located in Brooklyn, but the perpetrator managed to elude the police.
Later the police said that they are looking for a "person of interest" in the investigation who they named as Frank James, who investigators believed had rented the U-Haul vehicle. Police recovered the key to the van at the crime scene and it had been rented in Philadelphia.
James they said had addresses in Philadelphia and Wisconsin. The subway assailant was described by the police and eyewitnesses as a black man of heavy build, wearing an orange vest, a gray sweatshirt, a green helmet and surgical mask.
The attack began as a Manhattan-bound subway train on the N line was pulling into an underground station in Brooklyn's Sunset Park neighbourhood.
The gunman removed two canisters from his bag and opened them, sending smoke throughout the train car. Then the assailant fired 33 rounds from a Glock 9 mm semi-automatic handgun, which was later recovered along with three extended ammunition magazines, a hatchet, some consumer-grade fireworks and a container of gasoline.
Ten people were hit directly by gunfire, while 13 others suffered from smoke inhalation or were injured in the chaos as panicked riders fled the smoke-filled subway car. Some collapsed to the pavement as they poured onto the platform of the 36th Street station.
Even though authorities said that five of them were critically injured they believed that none of the injuries are fatal and that all the victims are expected to survive.
Police said earlier that they were not treating the shooting immediately as an act of terrorism.
There was no known motive for the attack, but investigators found a number of social media posts linked to an individual named Frank James that mentioned homelessness and the New York City mayor. (UNI)
