Woman in custody in death of man pushed onto NY City subway tracks

(Reuters) - A woman who made self-incriminating statements is in custody in the death of a man pushed in front of an oncoming New York City subway train, police said on Saturday, the second such fatality this month for one of the world's busiest subway systems.

Detectives took a 31-year-old Hispanic woman into custody, a police spokesman told Reuters. Police said the woman, whom they did not name, made statements implicating herself.

The investigation is continuing, and charges are pending, the spokesman said.

Witnesses told police a woman appeared to be mumbling to herself and pacing Thursday evening before she approached an unsuspecting man from behind on the platform of an elevated station in the borough of Queens.

She then shoved him onto the subway track as the train pulled into the station, witnesses said.

Police identified the victim as Sunando Sen. It is the second death this month of a New York subway rider pushed onto the tracks of the city's more than 100-year-old subway system.

On December 3, Ki-Suck Han was killed after being shoved onto subway tracks in Manhattan as a train entered the 49th Street station near Times Square. A suspect, Naeem Davis, has been charged with second-degree murder.

Including Thursday's incident, 139 people have been struck by New York City subway trains so far in 2012, and 54 of them died, a Metropolitan Transportation Authority spokesman said on Friday. He said the tally was preliminary and subject to change.

After shoving Sen on Thursday, the woman ran from the station to the street in a scene caught on surveillance video footage that police released on Friday as they searched for her.

Police said on Friday it remained unclear whether she knew the victim, whom they initially had trouble identifying because his body had been so badly mangled by the train.

(Reporting by Colleen Jenkins; Editing by Alex Dobuzinskis and Vicki Allen)