Officials: 6 people injured by car during NYC protest

Officials say several people have been injured by a car at a protest in midtown Manhattan

NYC Protest Pedestrians Struck (Copyright 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

Several people were injured when a car drove into a street protest in midtown Manhattan on Friday, the New York City Police Department said.

Witnesses told reporters on the scene that the protest march was passing through the intersection of 39th Street and Third Avenue at around 4 p.m. when the car went into the crowd.

The New York Fire Department says six people were taken by ambulance to local hospitals. Police and fire officials said the injuries didn’t appear to be life-threatening.

Police said the driver a woman, was stopped near the area. She was taken into custody and was being questioned. No arrest had been made.

The circumstances of what caused the car to go into the protest were unclear. Authorities say the driver remained at the scene at 39th Street and Third Avenue. The car’s windshield was smashed by the impact, pictures and video showed.

A participant in the protest, Sofia Vickerman, of Denver, Colorado, said that when the car hit the crowd it tossed people and a bicycle in the air.

She said the march had begun in Times Square and was aimed at drawing attention to an ongoing hunger strike by immigration detainees at a jail in New Jersey.

Images posted online showed a heavy police presence as authorities blocked off the area, and one person being loaded into a stretcher.