Stampede & Panic 'In The Depths Of Hell' At 34th Street Subway Station

The 'depths of hell,' seen here after the panic and stampede.

Hundreds of straphangers found themselves swept up in a panicked stampede at the 34th Street-Herald Square subway station during the Wednesday morning rush hour.

An NYPD spokesperson said the panic was caused by a "loud noise" but there was no sign that firearms were discharged. The incident started shortly before 8:30 a.m., when commuters on a northbound D train fled screaming from the platform at the 34th Street-Herald Square station.

According to multiple reports from the scene, some passengers said they heard a gunshot, others said they saw someone pull a gun during a fight on the train, and ran off the train screaming, abandoning items along the way as they ran upstairs.

The MTA told Gothamist that "there were reports of shots fired on a northbound train... People were running from the train. Supposedly there was a fight. When the police responded the said it was unfounded and service was resumed.”

The NYPD told us, "There was a report of a loud noise that startled some people, officers went down into the station and did not find anything criminal in nature. It was a non-event."

But it was not a non-event for those caught up in the stampede, which reminded at least one commuter of a similar panic at the Bedford Ave L station last summer, which was also sparked by the mistaken sound of gunshots. Another person on the scene, who wanted to remain anonymous, told us it was "like those apocalypse scenes in a movie where people are just running and screaming." Twitter confirms:

"I was on an M train that arrived at 34th Street a little before 8:30," said 38-year-old Brooklyn resident Meghan Day. "As soon as I stepped out it was pandemonium. People were screaming, 'RUN! RUN AS FAST AS YOU CAN!'"

Day said she joined hundreds of other panicked commuters scrambling up the exit ramp from the platform, though she confirmed no one seemed to know what the cause of the panic was.

"You know 34th Street, when you're down there you're in the depths of hell," Day said. "It was a panic. People were screaming, hundreds of people running. It was just chaos—a woman bit it pretty hard. And the panic continued all the way until I was on the street. People were saying don't go down there. And when I got to the street, everyone was asking, 'What's happening, why are we running? What's going on?"

Matt Grossman was also caught in the pandemonium, and told us, "I was getting on the Queens-bound M train at 34th St-Herald Square when a D train pulled in across the platform. Suddenly swarms of people started rushing out of the D train. Some were running into our train and others were leaving the station entirely. I saw multiple baby strollers scattered across the platform. I think parents must have quickly grabbed their kids and bolted. Most of us stood in shock trying to understand what was going on... There was a lot of running, screaming, and crying." He notes that police arrived quickly, and the D train was evacuated entirely.

James McKenna was on the train in question, and told us that he "started hearing screaming and people frantically running the other way of whatever happened (with no one mentioning what the issue was)." Later he heard there was a fight and that someone allegedly pulled a gun. There was a stampede as people fled the train, and McKenna says he "handed cops a couple of backpacks that people left behind."

McKenna was able to get back downstairs around five minutes later, he says, "and on to the same train" that the alleged gun was drawn, like a real goddamn New Yorker.