World

Photo: The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

Uniformed and plainclothes police officers stand outside a New York subway station after a man was killed after falling into the path of a train, Monday, Dec. 3, 2012. Transit officials say police are investigating whether he could have been pushed onto the tracks. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

Police questioned a suspect Tuesday in the death of a New Yorker who was pushed onto the tracks and photographed just before a train hit him, an image that drew virulent criticism after it appeared on the front page of the New York Post.

Investigators recovered security video showing a man fitting the description of the assailant working with street vendors near Rockefeller Center, New York Police Department spokesman Paul Browne said.

Witnesses told investigators they saw the suspect talking to himself Monday afternoon before he approached Ki-Suck Han at the Times Square station, got into an altercation with him and pushed him into the train's path.

Police took the man into custody Tuesday, but he hasn't yet been charged.

Han, 58, of Queens, died shortly after being struck. Police said he tried to climb a few feet (meters) to safety but got trapped between the train and the platform's edge.

The Post published a photo on its front page Tuesday of Han with his head turned toward the train, his arms reaching up but unable to climb off the tracks in time. It was shot by freelance photographer R. Umar Abbasi, who was waiting to catch a train as the situation unfolded.

Abbasi said in an audio clip on the Post's website that he used the flash on his camera to try to warn the train driver that someone was on the tracks. He said he wasn't strong enough to lift Han.

"I wanted to help the man, but I couldn't figure out how to help," Abbasi said. "It all happened so fast."