A woman has claimed she was punched in the face by a man she asked to give her more space on the subway.

New York resident Sam Saia said she was riding the train to work when the man next to her started “manspreading” – splaying his legs open excessively and pushing her against the train wall.

When she asked him for more room, Ms Saia claimed, the man began yelling at her.

“B****, you ain’t nothing!” she said the man yelled. “I’ve raped white b****es like you, f***ing c***!”

At this point, Ms Saia said, she put her earbuds in and told him to relax – a decision that only made him angrier. The man told her not to ignore him, called her several more slurs, and then punched her in the face, sending her head slamming into the wall behind her.

A photo the 37-year-old posted to Facebook shows her lip broken and bruised.

Ms Saia wrote on Facebook that “a bunch of good people” came to her assistance after the alleged assault. Video captured by a bystander appears to show a good Samaritan holding the man’s arms down and telling him to get off at the next stop.

“Get off the train bro, you just f***ing hit a lady,” the man can be heard saying. “...She’s bleeding, you piece of s***; You hit her in the mouth!”

The alleged assailant attempts to apologise, but is interrupted by Ms Saia.

“F*** you,” she says. “Have a better day than I’m about to have.”

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Ms Saia told the New York Daily News that she posted about the incident on Facebook after attempting to report it to the police.

When she tried to file a report at the New York Police Department's 17th precinct, she said, she was told to report to the Transit District 34 headquarters instead. But officers at the Transit District headquarters told her she could file her report at any precinct, so she'd be wasting her time going to them.

“I said to myself, ‘OK, I’ll just blow it up on social media,’” she told the Daily News. “I’m here doing what the police are supposed to do. I just want awareness and I want us to be safe.”

The problem with manspreading - London Live

The police department is conducting an internal inquiry into Ms Saia’s claims, a spokesperson told The Independent.

Ms Saia’s Facebook post has been shared more than 1,200 times, and helped her connect with the bystander who took the video.