At least 16 people were injured during a shooting at a subway station in Brooklyn, a neighborhood of New Yorkauthorities reported Tuesday.
“At 08:27 (12:27 GMT) the police responded to the 911 call of an injured person on the subway” in Brooklyn, a Brooklyn police spokeswoman told AFP. New York.
LOOK: LIVE | Shooting in a New York subway station: numerous injuries reported
“There were no active explosive devices at that time,” the police department (NYPD) tweeted.
“Please clear the area,” the NYPD said, urging witnesses to contact police for details.
The Governor of New YorkKathy Hochul said she had been “informed” of the situation.
“First responders are on site” and information will be updated as investigations take place, he tweeted.
ABC News reported that officers are investigating whether a smoke device was detonated and that police are searching for the suspect.
According to the NBC network, which cited police officers and another security service, A man wearing a gas mask and an orange workman’s vest may have thrown a can of smoke onto the subway platform to distract people during rush hour.
The man was still at large, according to Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine.
The White House said that President Joe Biden had been informed of the incident and was in communication with New York authorities.
Mass shootings occur relatively frequently in the United States, where firearms cause an estimated 40,000 deaths a year, including suicides, according to the Gun Violence Archive website.
The incident came a day following Biden announced new gun control measures, especially increasing restrictions on so-called “ghost weapons,” which are difficult to trace because they can even be assembled at home.
Lax gun laws and constitutionally guaranteed rights to bear repeatedly hamper efforts to reduce the number of guns in circulation despite a majority of Americans who say they favor greater controls.
Three-quarters of homicides in the United States are committed with weapons, and the number of revolvers and other weapons for sale continues to rise.