A 57-year-old man died after the shopping bag he was carrying became trapped in the doors of a moving subway train in Brooklyn, New York, on Monday evening.

The incident took place at about 6:05pm local time on Monday, September 28, at Utica Avenue station in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighbourhood. In Bangladesh, it was early Tuesday morning, September 29.

The victim was identified by police as Yaw Boahene, a Brooklyn resident.

According to investigators, Boahene was getting off an A train when his shopping bag became caught in the closing doors. As the train started moving, he was pulled backwards and dragged towards the tracks.

He was eventually pulled between the train cars and fell onto the roadbed of the northbound A train, police said.

Officers responding to a 911 call found the man unconscious and unresponsive on the tracks. Emergency medical workers pronounced him dead at the scene.

The New York Police Department said the city’s Office of Chief Medical Examiner will determine the official cause of death. The investigation into the circumstances of the incident is continuing.

A witness told ABC7 that she was returning home from school when the incident occurred. Passengers on the platform were left alarmed by what they saw.

Police initially described the item as a backpack but later clarified that it was a shopping bag.

There has been no indication from police of any criminal involvement. Investigators are looking into how the bag became trapped in the train doors and how the incident resulted in the man being pulled onto the tracks.

Serious incidents involving passengers being dragged by subway trains are uncommon, although similar fatalities have occurred in New York in the past. In 2022, a 20-year-old man died after his clothing became caught in the doors of a No. 1 train at Columbus Circle in Manhattan.

The latest incident is under investigation, with authorities expected to establish the precise sequence of events leading to Boahene’s death.