NEW YORK — A man stabbed six people at Penn Station in Manhattan on Sunday evening, seriously wounding one, according to city officials. The violence happened a day before thousands of New York Knicks fans were expected to pass through the transit hub to watch Game 3 of the NBA Finals at Madison Square Garden, directly above the station.

The attack sent panicked commuters fleeing the station, a junction for several major commuter railways and Amtrak, whose police officers apprehended the man and took him into custody, according to spokesperson W. Kyle Anderson.

The man, whose identity has not been released, was taken to Weill Cornell Medical Center with minor injuries, according to a spokesperson for the Fire Department. The victims, who were taken to Bellevue Hospital, are expected to survive, the spokesperson said.

The stabbings occurred the night before President Donald Trump and Mayor Zohran Mamdani were expected to attend the Knicks game.

“My heart is with everyone who was injured, their loved ones and all those shaken by this unacceptable violence,” Mamdani said Sunday in a social media post. “I’m wishing each of the victims a full and speedy recovery.”

Around 7 p.m., emergency service workers received a 911 call regarding multiple people stabbed at the station, the Fire Department spokesperson said.

It was then that Eduardo Sanchez, 47, who works at Primo Cappuccino inside the station, said he saw people rush past him and sprint up the stairs toward the exit.

“Everyone came running, screaming,” Sanchez said. “One lady came running over here, crying, screaming, saying, ‘Can I stay over here and hide?’”

Nearby, Adil Kha, 21, who works at a Hudson News shop, said he saw roughly 50 people dart past his store toward an exit at 32nd Street and Seventh Avenue. He walked out of the store and down a flight of stairs where he saw a man who he said appeared to have been stabbed in the face.

Soon after, emergency workers rushed over to the man and began to bandage his head, Kha said.

“Everyone was running like crazy,” he added. “Everyone was terrified.”

Brian Fontanez, 22, who was waiting for his train back to his home in Newark, New Jersey, sat on the floor about 15 feet away from drops of blood and strips of gauze used to treat one of the victims.

“It’s my first time actually seeing something like this in person,” he said of the scene. “It’s very unnerving.”

“All we can do is keep our heads up make sure we’re safe,” he added.

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Chelsia Rose Marcius and Miles G. Cohen/Dakota Santiago
c. 2026 The New York Times Company