NYC subways hit by looters, closed entrances while straphangers worried about getting stranded rush for final trains

New York City's curfew may have gone into effect at 11 p.m. Monday, but the subways remained mostly open until 1 a.m. for essential workers. 

Some subway entrances in midtown were closed off ahead of the curfew to control the flow of looters around Times Square and Bryant Park.

Looting on Broadway and 13th Street in Manhattan, New York City on Monday, June 1. (Gardiner Anderson/for New York Daily News)

Still, the situation underground wasn't great for those who rely on late night transit. 

At the 7th Ave platform on the E and D lines, a newsstand was ransacked at around 11:30 p.m.

Newspapers, magazines and food were strewn across the platform in an ugly mess.

Later, around midnight, a group of more than 30 protesters and looters fleeing police stormed into the 59th-Lexington Ave. station. 

Looting on Broadway and 13th Street in Manhattan, New York City on Monday, June 1. (Gardiner Anderson/for New York Daily News)

Pauline Amegbedgi, 56, from Harlem, a security guard who works in midtown, feared getting stranded. She was waiting for the last uptown No. 6 train at Grand Central Terminal at 12:45 a.m.

“I carry around my card in case anyone stops me. There are broken windows everywhere. I left late,  I was worried I’d miss my train. I can’t walk. I’m scared. It’s too far," she said.

People exit damaged stores after the glass was knocked out in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York, Monday, June 1. (Craig Ruttle/AP)

New York City imposed a late-night curfew Monday that failed to prevent another night of destruction, including arrests after a break-in at the iconic Macy's store on 34th Street, following protests over George Floyd’s death.

As the 11 p.m. deadline to get off the streets approached, bands of protesters marched through Manhattan and Brooklyn, and police simultaneously responded to numerous reports of roving groups of people smashing their way into shops and emptying them of merchandise.

The doors of Macy’s flagship Manhattan store were breached, and police pulled two handcuffed men out and put them in a van.

People take items from a store hours after a solidarity rally calling for justice over the death of George Floyd Monday, June 1, in New York. (Wong Maye-E/AP)

Video posted on social media showed some protesters arguing with people breaking windows, urging them to stop, but instances of vandalism and smash-and-grab thefts mounted as the night deepened.

“We worked hard to build up the business, and within a second, someone does this,” said the owner of a ransacked Manhattan smoke shop, who identified himself only by the name Harri. “Really bad.”

A newsstand is pictured after being ransacked by looters at the 7th Avenue D train platform on Monday, June 1. (Clayton Guse/New York Daily News)

With an 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew, New York joined other cities around the country in imposing such measures after days of unrest. The limit on a city of more than 8 million people comes after months of restrictions on public gatherings already imposed because of the coronavirus pandemic.

But enough mayhem happened before the curfew took effect that Mayor Bill de Blasio tweeted that it would move up to 8 p.m. Tuesday.

De Blasio and Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the outbreaks of violence the previous two evenings — which left stores ransacked and police vehicles burned — gave them no choice to impose a curfew and boost police presence, even as they insisted they stood with the throngs of peaceful demonstrators who have spoken out for several days against police brutality and racial injustice.