Reported crime rates in New York City have fallen overall since 2019, despite spiking after the end of Covid lockdowns.

There were also significant drops in shootings, robberies, burglaries, sexual assaults, and grand larcenies.

Compared to its population, New York has a considerably lower murder rate than other cities such as Detroit, Cleveland, St Louis, and Kansas City, Missouri.

Crimes on the subway are relatively rare, but a number of headline-grabbing shootings on the system over the past few years have stoked public concern.

Witnesses have described the station at the centre of the shooting as "like a battlefield" as gunshots rang out and commuters fled for cover.

Yanesa Ortega, a 29-year-old MTA bus driver, told The New York Times that she was walking home near the station when she heard multiple shots and saw people running and screaming down the station steps.

Heriberto Paredes, a 52-year-old mechanic who works nearby, said that he gave first aid to a young woman whose coat was soaked with blood.

"What I heard sounded like a battlefield,” Mr Paredes told the Times. "I could see the despair on people’s faces, wondering how something like this could happen in a city that’s supposedly safe."

Monday’s shooting in the Bronx came as New York’s state government continues to fight in court to preserve its historically strict gun laws.

State officials responded by crafting new legislation that allowed more people to get a licence while banning guns from actually being carried in schools, public playgrounds, theatres, bars, buses, airports, and more.

The head of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) has given his condolences to the victims and their families, calling the shooting a heartbreaking act of “senseless violence”.

“New York’s heart breaks when people who are headed home, and kids headed home from school to do their homework, are subjected to random acts of violence like what occurred here today late this afternoon,” said MTA chairman and chief executive Janno Lieber at the press conference earlier today.

“New York’s heart breaks when guns are on the streets, even though the mayor and the governor are doing everything possible to get guns off the streets...

“We have made tremendous progress against transit crime, with an amazing transit bureau. But right now we are in mourning, and determined to fight back against guns on our streets.”

At the end of the press conference, one NYPD official addressed the shooter directly with a special message.

"You are now NYPD's most wanted," he said. "And we have the greatest detectives in the world looking for you.

"We suggest you turn yourself in, 'cause you're not gonna make it."

CORRECTION: The NYPD chief of transit is called Michael Kemper, not Michael Kaplan. The post below mentioning his name has been corrected.

Police believe that the shooting stemmed from a dispute between two groups of teenagers riding a northbound subway train.

At a press conference just now (it seems to have started early), NYPD chief of transit Michael Kemper said that detectives do not believe this was a case of one person “firing indiscriminately” into a crowd.

Instead, he said, the dispute escalated until at least one person pulled a gun, causing commuters on the rush-hour train to scramble out onto the platform.

Some of the victims are believed to have been part of the dispute, while others were bystanders, he added.

“This is unacceptable, and when detectives make an arrest – and I’m very confident they will – there must be swift, immediate, strong consequences,” said Mr Kemper.

The NYPD has now confirmed some basic details about the victims. Here’s what we know:

• A 34-year-old man, shot and later pronounced dead at St Barnabas hospital
• A 28-year-old man, shot in the right arm, taken to St Barnabas in a stable condition
• A 29-year-old woman, shot in the face and in the neck, taken to St Barnabas in stable condition
• A 15-year-old boy, shot in the thigh and in the ear, taken to New York Presbyterian Hospital in a stable condition
• A 14-year-old girl, shot in the foot, taken to Presbyterian in a stable condition
• A 71-year-old man, shot, taken to Bronx Care Hospital in a stable condition

Early reports that all the victims were children or teenagers seem to have been unfounded.

The NYPD will hold a press conference at 7:30pm Eastern Time to give out more information.

Multiple outlets are reporting that the shooting began as an argument or fight aboard a train which then spread onto the platform.

Both The New York Post and CBS News have made that claim, citing police sources.

“I heard gunshots running, shooting – like maybe six times, five, six times. I heard two child[ren] screaming. And then, when I saw the train coming, that’s when I ran downstairs,” one witness told CBS.

Different outlets are reporting contradictory information about the victims, so for now we are holding off on saying more until we can verify the reports.

The Associated Press is now reporting that person killed in the shooting was a man in his thirties.

According to police, a single suspect opened fire at bystanders on the station platform at 4:38pm. That suspect is as yet unidentified and still on the loose, as far as we know.