A 64-year-old straphanger was kicked onto a roadbed at Penn Station in the first of two subway assaults that took place on the Big Apple’s beleaguered transit system Sunday, according to police.
The man was kicked in the back by a male stranger at the 34th Street-Eighth Avenue northbound A, C, E line platform around 5 p.m., causing him to fall onto the tracks, authorities said.
He was helped back to safety by other straphangers and was then taken to Lenox Health Greenwich Village Hospital where he was treated for knee and back pain, police said.
The victim was on his phone when the suspect approached him and asked a question, law enforcement sources said. The victim didn’t understand the assailant, who then carried out his assault, sources said.
In a separate assault around 8 p.m. on Sunday, a 19-year-old woman was punched in the face by a female assailant after the two got into an argument on the mezzanine level of the 168th Street subway station in Washington Heights, cops said.
An 18-year-old man who was with the 19-year-old also had his phone stolen after he dropped it while trying to break up the dispute, police said.
The young woman was taken to NY Presbyterian-Columbia University Medical Center in stable condition.
No arrests have been made in either case as the probes continue.
The two subway incidents are the latest trend of increased violence that has gripped the city’s transit system in recent weeks, including multiple shootings and stabbings.
