Woman Stabbed With 'Needle' On New York Subway

A woman has been stabbed in the shoulder - apparently with a needle - after she was bumped into at a busy Manhattan subway station.

The 37-year-old victim, identified in media reports as Jenny Gonzalez, was entering a turnstile at Seventh Avenue and 49th Street, just blocks from Times Square, when she felt stinging pain in her shoulder.

When she got home, she realised she had a puncture wound and was immediately taken to Mount Sinai Hospital Queens in Astoria. Medics confirmed she had been stabbed with a "needle-like" object.

The woman, who is now taking anti-viral medication to prevent HIV and hepatitis B, said a man approached her in the subway station on Wednesday night and was "too close for comfort".

She told ABC 7: "(I felt) that kind of warm, stinging, pain feeling. And then I felt like this sharp pain in my right shoulder.

"All these thoughts started going through my mind, because I was like, what'd this guy poke me with?

"You know I got scared, I didn't wanna wait any longer and went straight to the emergency room."

The incident comes amid a spate of slashings on the New York subway, with at least 10 reported so far this year .

Mayor Bill de Blasio has said the incidents were not related.

Speaking on Hot 97 radio he said: "We've had these incidents on the subway, they're obviously distressing to people.

"The fact is they're individual incidents, they are not related."

In the wake of the attacks, New York Police Commissioner William Bratton ordered officers to wake passengers who nod off while riding the subway.

The suspect in the latest attack is described as a white male in his 40s, around 6ft tall with a sturdy build. He has blond hair and was wearing glasses and a blue and white plaid shirt or jacket.