A young man and woman were killed early Sunday after apparently sitting on the tracks of a New York City subway as a train barreled toward them.
Chilling video circulating online shows the pair on the rails near Manhattan's Spring Street station shortly before 3:15 AM.
The footage, which has been edited due to its disturbing nature, appears to show the two facing the approaching train moments before tragedy strikes.
A southbound No. 4 train hit the pair, killing both at the scene, according to law-enforcement sources cited by the New York Post.
Both victims were reportedly 24 years old.
The Daily Source, which posted footage from the scene, reported that the train operator was unable to stop in time after encountering the pair on the roadbed.
NYPD officers were later seen throughout the station, with one of the victims' bodies covered on the platform as authorities investigated the bizarre and tragic incident.
Perhaps the most unsettling part is that investigators still don't know why the pair were on the tracks in the first place.
There is currently no indication that either person was pushed or accidentally fell onto the roadbed. Law-enforcement sources told the Post that investigators have considered whether the two could have been intoxicated, but there is no evidence yet establishing that.
And there's a potentially relevant detail about the station itself. Spring Street has previously been the site of serious subway strikes, and court records from earlier cases describe a curve on the approach to the station that can restrict how far ahead an operator can see.
In one previous incident examined by a New York appeals court, a train operator spotted a person on the tracks after entering the station and immediately applied the emergency brake, but was unable to stop before striking him.
Testimony in that case described the curve approaching Spring Street as limiting the operator's view of the tracks ahead. That doesn't explain what happened Sunday, and authorities have not suggested the train operator was at fault. But it does offer some context for how quickly a situation involving someone on the tracks can become impossible to stop.
Neither victim has been publicly identified, and police have not announced any evidence of criminal involvement.
As of Sunday afternoon, authorities had also not publicly confirmed whether drugs or alcohol played any role in the deaths.
For now, investigators are left trying to determine what led two 24-year-olds onto the tracks in the middle of the night, and why they apparently remained there as the train approached.
The circumstances surrounding their tragic deaths remain under investigation.
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