A woman was slashed on Wednesday inside the Brooklyn Public Library's Central Branch at Grand Army Plaza, police said. View Full Caption Flickr/Erik Stattin

PROSPECT HEIGHTS — A man was arrested for slashing a woman with a knife inside a public library computer room this week because she was "sitting too close" to him, the NYPD said.

Terrence Wilmot, 43, was using the computer room inside the Brooklyn Public Library’s Central Branch on Wednesday afternoon, when he kicked the woman’s chair and told her “you’re sitting too close to me,” and lunged at her with a kitchen knife, police and prosecutors said.

The woman’s left hand and fingers were cut as she tried to defend herself from the blade, police said.

Library security detained Wilmot and police arrested him a short time later at the Grand Army Plaza branch, a library spokeswoman said.

The 26-year-old woman was treated at the scene for non-life-threatening injuries, police said. No one else was injured during the attack.

The 43-year-old was charged with assault, menacing, criminal possession of a weapon and unlawful possession of marijuana, court records show.

Library staff said incidents like this are uncommon and stressed that all protocols were followed in the aftermath of the assault by BPL security staff who contained the situation and called law enforcement. Surveillance cameras are used and security officers are stationed throughout the building during operating hours.