A 30-year-old woman was in critical condition after being pushed into a subway train on Wednesday afternoon, the police said.

The woman was standing on the platform at the 53rd Street and Fifth Avenue station shortly after noon when she was pushed into a departing E train by a man whom law enforcement officials described as emotionally disturbed. Witnesses said the man was talking to himself before he pushed the woman, according to the officials. They said it was a random attack.

The woman fell into the subway tracks after her head hit the train, Michael Kemper, the Police Department’s chief of transit, said at a news conference Wednesday afternoon.

She was taken to NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital in critical condition, police officials said. The police had not made an arrest and were seeking the suspect.

The chance of becoming a crime victim on the subway is low, but high-profile attacks have stoked fears over security in a system that is battling to win back riders. The sudden shove in particular is a perennial urban nightmare.

Through Oct. 15, there had been 15 people pushed off subway platforms in the city this year. There were 22 in the same time period last year, according to the police.

In May, a woman was critically injured after a man shoved her head against a moving subway train at the Lexington Avenue/63rd Street station. The woman, Emine Yilmaz Ozsoy, 35, was partially paralyzed in the attack.

The last fatal subway push was in January 2022, when 40-year-old Michelle Go was pushed into the tracks at the Times Square subway station and hit by an arriving R train. Martial Simon, 61, a schizophrenic homeless man who had a history of erratic behavior, was charged with second-degree murder in Ms. Go’s death but deemed unfit to stand trial.

This is a breaking story and will be updated.

Chelsia Rose Marcius contributed reporting.