UPDATE: 7 Train Service Partially Restored After Mysterious Exploding Noise

Photo via Google Maps

UPDATE, Tuesday, 5:30 p.m.: Adding to this afternoon’s big 7 Train mystery, a spokesman with the Fire Department of New York (FDNY) told Patch that when firefighters responded to the Hunters Point station, they found nothing wrong with the train or the tracks. “There was nothing there,” the spokesman said.

We’ve contacted the MTA for an update on the investigation; we’ll update this post when we hear back. Meanwhile, all previously shut-down 7 Train stations in Queens have been reopened and local service restored. There is still no express service, however. Click here for the latest from the MTA.

Original story below.

QUEENS, NY — MTA officials were investigating ”a report of a loud noise” in the underground subway system near the Hunters Point Avenue station at the start of Tuesday’s afternoon rush hour, an MTA spokesman told Patch.

Twitter user @CLandry82 said he heard what sounded like an “explosion” and saw ”smoke coming out of the train and people scrambling for the stairs” around 4:20 p.m. at the adjoining Vernon Boulevard/Jackson Avenue station.

“Police and fire are arriving now,” he wrote 10 minutes later. “There was almost a stampede trying to get out of the station.”

Another Twitter user named Kimberly Chen said there was a “near stampede” at the Hunters Point station as well.

MTA spokesman Kevin Ortiz could not immediately explain what had caused the loud noise.

A third Twitter user, Andrea Lexa, said she was on the train that stalled. ”Everyone heard [an] explosion,” she wrote. “The idiot conductor yelled EMERGENCY RUN.”

The MTA’s real-time delay website said that as of 4:40 p.m., Queens-bound 7 Trains were terminating at the Queensboro Plaza station due to “a train with mechanical problems.”

At that time, there was no 7 Train service in either direction between Queensboro Plaza and the end of the line (Hudson Yards).