NEW YORK -- Police have arrested a Brooklyn man and charged him with slashing a 71-year-old woman on the face as she was riding a subway train in Manhattan.

The NYPD said early Wednesday that Damon Knowles, 21, had been charged with assault with intent to cause disfigurement and assault with intent to cause serious physical injury. He's in police custody and it wasn't immediately known if he has a lawyer.

According to CBS New York, the attack happened on a D train as it was pulling into the Broadway-Lafayette Station around 7 a.m. Monday.

The victim, Carmen Rivera, was heading to work when a man sitting across from her stood up and suddenly attacked, police said.

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"He just pretended that he fell, and he fell on top of me and that's when he slashed my face," said Rivera, who needed 20 stitches to close a 4-inch gash on her left cheek. "I didn't even know cause I didn't feel no pain."

When the doors opened, the suspect slashed her left cheek and then fled.

Surveillance video showed the suspect tripping over the turnstile before running out of the station.

Knowles was taken into custody Tuesday after a relative recognized him from the surveillance video and called police, the station reports.