MIDTOWN — A 38-year-old man was slashed across his face with a box cutter in the Bryant Park subway station after getting into a fight with another passenger on a train Thursday morning, officials said.
The man was on an uptown D train when he got into an argument with a heavyset male stranger and the two started to push and shove each other, police and sources said.
The suspect then cut the man on his face and chest with the box cutter at the 42nd Street-Bryant Park station at 10:18 a.m., officials said.
The 38-year-old victim chased the slasher into the street, but then lost sight of him, said NYPD Assistant Chief Vincent Coogan at the subway station.
He was then taken to Bellevue Hospital in stable condition, an NYPD spokesman said.
Irene Malinowski, 72, from Pennsylvania, was walking on West 42nd Street on her way to meet friends when she saw an injured man standing on the corner surrounded by officers.
"The blood was profusely dripping from his hands and face," she said.
Malinowski described the bleeding man as about 6 feet tall with shoulder length hair wearing a T-shirt soaked in blood. He was speaking with police officers and drinking a bottle of water, she said.
"He was calm, not like he was in shock," she said.
Investigators recovered what they believe is the box cutter used in the attack and are reviewing surveillance footage, Coogan added.
B and D trains resumed regular service with delays after running over the C line following the attack, according to the MTA's website.
Jaquan Allen, 26, a sound engineer from The Bronx was evacuated from his train at the Bryant Park stop shortly after the incident and saw a trail of blood splattered on the subway stairs.
"We leave, we see blood, we panicking," said Allen.
Police officers gave little information about why the passengers were being evacuated, he said.
"They force you out but they don't tell you why," said Allen. "It worried me like everybody else."
