Police mounted an intense manhunt on Tuesday for a gunman who set off two smoke bombs and opened fire in a New York subway car, injuring more than 20 people in a morning rush-hour attack that prompted new calls to fight violence in the city’s transit system.

Police said the gunman was believed to have acted alone and immediately fled the crime scene. The attack unfolded as a Manhattan-bound subway train on the N line was pulling into an underground station in Brooklyn’s Sunset Park neighborhood.

Ten people were hit directly by gunfire, including five hospitalized in critical but stable condition, authorities said.

Police said 13 more people suffered from smoke inhalation or were otherwise injured in the chaos as panicked riders fled the smoke-filled subway car.

The suspect was described by police as a man of heavy build, wearing a green construction-type vest and a hooded sweatshirt.

Fox News and local TV station WNBC reported that the New York City Police Department [NYPD] later located a U-Haul van with Arizona license plates that authorities had been looking for in connection with the shooting. But the suspect remained at large.

NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell said the shooting was not being investigated as an act of terrorism, although authorities would not rule anything out as a motive.

Sewell said the suspect was seen donning a gas mask in the train car as it was about to enter the station, then removed a canister from his bag and opened it.

“The train at that time began to fill with smoke. He then opened fire, striking multiple people on the subway and in the platform,” she added.

Outside the station, authorities shut down a dozen or so blocks and cordoned off the immediate vicinity with crime-scene tape. Schools in the neighborhood were placed under security lockdowns.

Source: Agencies (edited by Al-Manar English Website)