Teen dies after being found unconscious on top of a New York City subway train
New York City Police were called to the Queensboro Plaza Subway Station at 2:47 a.m. and discovered the unresponsive 15-year-old male, a NYPD spokesperson said.
The boy was taken to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The incident remains under investigation.
More than a dozen New Yorkers, many of them young boys, have been killed or badly injured in recent years while attempting to 'subway surf,' or lie on top of moving subway cars. The practice dates back a century but has been supercharged by social media.
The Metropolitan Transit Authority has asked social media companies to take down videos glamorizing subway surfing, which is illegal. Also, authorities have tried to address the problem with public awareness campaigns and by deploying drones to catch thrill-seekers in the act.
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On Écault beach, a WWII gun emplacement serves as their lookout post. Inland waterways have been sealed off with razor wire and floating barriers to prevent launches of so-called 'taxi boats.' They motor to offshore pickup points, where waiting migrants then wade into the sea and climb aboard, children in their arms and on their shoulders. AP saw a 6 a.m. pickup Friday on Hardelot beach south of Boulogne. Many dozens of people squeezed aboard, straddling the sausage-like inflated sides — one foot in the sea, the other in the boat. It left about a half-dozen people on the beach, some in the water, apparently because there was no more room. Gendarmes on the beach watched it motor slowly away. Campaigners who work with migrants fear that allowing police to intervene against boats farther offshore will panic those aboard, risking casualties. French officials are examining the possibility of police interventions up to 300 meters (980 feet) from the water's edge. 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So the whole process needs to be reconsidered.' Migrants say crossings are atrocious but worth the risk Around the campfire, men laughed off the risks of the crossings that French authorities say claimed nearly 80 lives last year. They had nothing left to lose and the channel was just one more hardship after tortuous journeys to France filled with difficulties and misery, they said. 'We will never give up,' Deniz said. According to U.K. government figures, more than 20,000 people made the crossing in the first six months of this year, up by about 50% from the same period in 2024, and potentially on course toward a new annual record. About 37,000 people were detected crossing in 2024, the second-highest annual figure after 46,000 in 2022. Qassim, a 26-year-old Palestinian, messaged AP after crossing last week with his wife and their daughters, aged 6 and 4. The boat labored through waves for eight hours, he said. 'Everyone was praying,' he wrote. 'We were patient and endured and saw death. The children were crying and screaming.' 'Now we feel comfortable, safe, and stable. We are starting a new page,' he wrote. 'We will do our best to protect our children and ourselves and to make up for the difficult years we have been exposed to.' ___ Associated Press writer Jill Lawless in London contributed to this report. ___ Follow AP's global migration coverage at
