Man tossed firebombs from rooftop in New York

A man threw four firebombs from rooftop on a busy New York street setting a cab on fire.

A man with a machete, slashed someone coming out of a subway station before climbing to a building’s rooftop and hurling firebombs at cars, setting one ablaze, police said on Wednesday.

The 21-year-old attacker set upon a 45-year-old man last night at a Queens subway station exit, police said. The victim, who fended off his attacker with an umbrella, suffered cuts on his head. He was in stable condition at a hospital.

Later the attacker dropped the machete and fled inside a nearby two-story building, where he went to the roof and started smoking cigarettes before setting liquid-filled containers on fire and hurling them into the street, witnesses said.

He threw at least four explosive devices, one of which struck a livery cab and set it on fire, police said. However no one was injured.

As a precautionary measure Police evacuated nearby homes in the Richmond Hill neighborhood and sealed off the block during a one-hour standoff with the man. Officers swarmed the area on foot while a police helicopter hovered over the man.

Officer Robert Zajac said the ordeal ended when he told the man, “It’s time to come down now,” and the man complied.

The man, whose identity was not released, was undergoing psychiatric evaluation at a hospital on Tuesday night, police said. He hadn’t been charged with any crime. Neighbours said they were scared for their lives while the man was chucking firebombs into the street. They said they didn’t know the man well but he was always quiet and hadn’tcaused problems before.