An Indian-origin woman and her Nepali-American friend, both former Rutgers University students, were killed after being struck by an oncoming train at a New York subway station, with one apparently falling onto the tracks before the other went down in an attempt to help, American media reported.
The victims, both 24, were identified as Malaika Chitre, a resident of Dayton, New Jersey, and Navam Kaul of Sayreville, New Jersey, the New York Daily News reported.
The pair had attended Rutgers together.
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A video of the incident that has circulated online shows the woman pulling the man toward her before a train approaches and runs over them at a lower Manhattan subway station, with the accident reportedly involving a downtown number 4 train operating on the local tracks inside the Spring Street station.
It remains unclear who first ended up on the tracks. Kaul and Chitre died at the scene, with their bodies recovered from beneath the third and fourth carriages of the train, the report said.
Citing law enforcement sources, the New York Post reported that Kaul may have fallen onto the tracks or made his way onto them inside the station, prompting Chitre to go down to help him.
Police said they were notified of the accident at 3:14a.m. on Sunday after the train was unable to stop in time. Around 100 passengers were on board at the time and were evacuated onto the platform.
Kaul had reportedly attended Rutgers Business School in New Brunswick from autumn 2020 to spring 2024 but had not received a degree. Chitre completed her Bachelor of Science degree from the Rutgers-New Brunswick School of Arts and Sciences in May 2024.
According to their LinkedIn profiles, Chitre worked as an operations specialist at Acadia Pharmaceuticals, while Kaul was employed as a financial data analyst at Bloomberg.
"We are saddened to learn of the tragic death of these two former students," said Dory Devlin, assistant vice-president of news and media relations at Rutgers.
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