A gunman wearing a gas mask and a construction vest detonated a smoke canister on a rush-hour subway train in Brooklyn, New York on Tuesday, officials said. At least ten people were wounded by shooting. Police combed the city in search of the gunman and a rented truck.

A scene of terror ensued as terrified people fled the train and others staggered out. At least one of them collided with the platform.

“My subway door sprang open into disaster. It was a cloud of smoke and blood, with screaming individuals “Sam Carcamo, an eyewitness, said radio station 1010 WINS. As the railway car’s door opened, smoke gushed out, he added.

Five patients were listed as critical but were expected to survive. At least 17 people were hurt in the incident, which began on a subway train approaching a station in the Sunset Park area, roughly a 15-minute train trip from Manhattan and primarily populated by Hispanic and Asian residents.

Keechant Sewell, the police commissioner, said the incident was not being examined as terrorism, but she added that she was “not ruling anything out.”

Suspect’s image

Two law enforcement officials said they were able to get a photo of a probable suspect and were working to confirm his identification. There’s no word on the motive behind this. U-Haul trucks with a certain Arizona licence plate number have been instructed to be on the lookout for officers across the city, who have been instructed to stop and detain the occupants.

According to the officials, they found a revolver at the site, as well as a number of smoke devices and other stuff. At least two extended magazines are suspected to have been in the suspect’s possession.

Officials think the gun jammed, stopping the suspect from firing further, they added. As a result, the ATF has undertaken an urgent tracing in order to determine who made the pistol, who sold it, and who was its first owner.

The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not allowed to discuss the probe.

Chao, smoke, pandemonium

Smoke and passengers can be seen streaming out of a subway vehicle in a video taken by a train rider. People scream as they flee the train and a few others stumble out. A person yells, “Someone call 911!” after a person falls to the platform. Videos and images from the event show personnel tending to bleeding passengers on the platform, some among what look to be little puddles of blood, while another person is on the ground of a subway vehicle.

After dropping off his son at school, Danny Mastrogiorgio of Brooklyn witnessed a panicked rush of commuters, including some injured, up the subway stairwell at the 25th Street station. He said that at least two of them had apparent leg injuries.

“It was crazy,” he said to the AP. “No one had a clue as to what was happening.”

Witnesses on Fourth Avenue, a cross-street to the station, were approached by police officers and asked if they had been on the train. At least a dozen streets away, where a police cordon had been built up, a sea of emergency lights could be seen.

Brooklyn subway station’s surveillance camera is being retrieved by an officer of the New York City Police Department by ladder. Getty Images/AFP/Timothy A. Clary

As a result of the suspect allegedly throwing a gas canister before starting fire at 8:25 a.m., investigators believe some of those who were not wounded may have suffered smoke inhalation.

According to Sewell, there were no known explosive devices in the area at the time of the initial explosion claims.