Woman Arrested for Pushing Indian Man Under Subway Train

New York police have arrested a woman for killing an immigrant from India by pushing him into the path of an oncoming subway train.

Erika Menendez, 31, has been charged with second-degree murder as a hate crime. She was arrested following a tip-off from a member of the public who noticed her resemblance to the images captured by a surveillance camera.

Menendez, a resident of the Bronx, told the authorities she hates Hindus and Muslims. The victim, 46-year-old Sunando Sen, was an Indian Hindu. It is not clear whether the woman had any connection with him.

"I pushed a Muslim off the train tracks because I hate Hindus and Muslims - ever since 2001 when they put down the twin towers I've been beating them up," Menendez told prosecutors.

"The defendant is accused of committing what is every subway commuter's worst nightmare - being suddenly and senselessly pushed into the path of an oncoming train," said Queens District Attorney Richard A Brown.

"The victim was allegedly shoved from behind and had no chance to defend himself. Beyond that, the hateful remarks allegedly made by the defendant and which precipitated the defendant's actions can never be tolerated by a civilised society."

Sen, a resident of Queens, who recently opened a printing business on the Upper West Side, was killed on the night of 27 December. According to eye witnesses, a muttering woman shoved him off the platform on to the track as the No 7 train that runs between Queens and Manhattan entered the station; the woman then ran off. Sen died of "multiple blunt force trauma".

This is the second such killing in December. A man was pushed to his death in Times Square subway station earlier in the month. The accused, Naeem Davis, a homeless man, was charged with murder.