A 21-year-old man was attacked with a hammer and pushed onto subway tracks in New York City early Friday morning by a man shouting an anti-gay slur, according to the NYPD.

The attack took place after 1 a.m. at the Tremont Avenue station in the Bronx, an NYPD spokesperson told NBC News.

The victim told officers responding to a report of a dispute that he had been approached by a man he did not know who made anti-gay statements. The NYPD did not confirm what the assailant said, but the New York Daily News, citing police sources, reported he repeatedly shouted “faggot” at the victim.

The suspect then attacked the victim with a hammer before pushing the man onto the tracks and fleeing, according to police.

The victim, who suffered lacerations to his face and head, was able to get off the tracks on his own and was later taken to St. Barnabas Hospital in the Bronx, where he was listed in stable condition.

The police said the event is being investigated as “a possible bias crime.” There were no arrests as of Friday afternoon, though police said if surveillance footage of the attack is obtained, they will release more information to the public.

The attack comes amid a national surge in violent, personal hate crimes, according to a recent FBI report. According to the NYPD’s quarterly hate crimes reports, fewer than half of all hate crimes reported in the city this year have resulted in an arrest.

And just hours before the attack, at the nearby Westchester Square–East Tremont Avenue station in the eastern Bronx, a 15-year-old boy was stabbed in broad daylight by a group of men, according to NBC New York.

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