A teenager sneaked up to a sleeping subway rider in New York and lit the man's arm on fire early Friday, according to police.

The strange attack took place at 2.30am in a nearly empty car on the G Train, as the train pulled into the station at Court Square, its northern terminus in Queens.

A 30-year-old man had dozed off on the train while listening to music on his headphones, when police say Christopher Jackson, 18, crept up to the sleeping man.

With brazen disregard for public safety, the teenager lit the sleeping man's coat on fire and slunk away on the otherwise empty car, police say.

Christopher Jackson, 18, was arrested early Friday after allegedly setting a sleeping man's arm on fire on the G Train in Queens (file photo)

'I just lit a man on fire,' a transit worker then overheard Jackson boasting to a pal on his cellphone, according to the New York Daily News.

The transit worker called cops and halted the train in the station to prevent Jackson from escaping.

Cops rushed to the scene and arrested Jackson for arson, reckless endangerment, and assault.

The victim was rushed to New York-Presbyterian Hospital three miles away in Manhattan, where the man was treated for second and third degree burns to his right arm and hand.

Jackson has 10 prior arrests on various charges, according to the New York Post.

Notably, he was busted on October 19 for setting a garbage can and fence ablaze in Queens, and charged with arson and reckless endangerment, sources said.

Cops also pinched Jackson for slashing a car tire with a box cutter on December 6.

In 2015, while a student at Queens Vocational and Technical High School in Long Island City, Jackson was arrested for fighting a fellow student, age 15.