Reportedly, there were reportedly around 1,200 passengers traveling between New Jersey and New York when the incident happened. Due to the overhead power problems, the train has got stuck in the Hudson River tunnel for around three hours. As if this was not enough, on the arrival at New York’s Penn Station chaos ensued after the Amtrak police had to subdue a man with a stun gun after the man caused disruption in the station. This incident sparked a panicked stampede in the busy station. According to a New Jersey Transit spokeswoman, the train was stuck in the Hudson River tunnel on Friday afternoon after the Amtrak experienced overhead power problems. The spokeswoman said that the train eventually reached Penn Station in New York during the early evening. On the arrival at station, Amtrak police were forced to use a Taser to subdue the unruly man who was causing a disturbance in the station. According to New York police, this led to panic after a false rumors quickly did the rounds after crackling sound of the Taser was mistaken to be gunshots in the station.
According to the reports by New York Post, people in the station have started scream, with some of them running out of the Penn station, leaving their bags and luggage behind them. Reportedly it also led the Macy’s department store briefly being locked down. In the pandemonium which ensued, sixteen people in the station suffered minor injuries.
Fox News quotes that Mia Sanati, who was traveling on the train with her husband when she felt a bump and then saw the sparks. She said that the Amtrak train came to a stop after around 30 seconds. Sanati also said the power and the air conditioning went out on the train and it has got hot really quickly, as so many people tightly packed together in the train car. She said that some passengers handled the situation well by making room on their seats for the standing passengers, while others started pacing and also becoming anxious. Sanati added that once the train started to move again, everyone was cheering. The latest incident comes after a week of the derailment of New Jersey Transit shut down eight of the 21 tracks, causing disruptions to travel in the area for number of days. Three weeks ago an Amtrak train also derailed at the Penn Station.
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Steven Santoro, executive director of the New Jersey Transit apologized to the affected passengers in a statement, while the spokeswoman Nancy Snyder said that they are working together with Amtrak to find out the cause of the electrical problem. An Amtrak spokesperson also said on Friday night that the tasered man was not a passenger on the train in question and is currently in the police custody.
Mrudula Duddempudi.
