Maniac possibly involved in three separate NYC subway knife attacks

Three Manhattan straphangers were slashed in separate brazen subway attacks Sunday — and cops are looking into whether the same maniac was behind all of the attacks, sources said.

The first assault took place at around 4:20 p.m. on the Upper East Side when two women — 19 and 48 years old — were both slashed in the legs at the 86th Street and Lexington Avenue station, according to law enforcement sources.

“The girl came up to my booth to call the cops,” an MTA worker at the station said of one of the victims.

“She was crying. She didn’t know the person. She said the person just walked up to her and slashed her for no reason. Then I got the police here.”

About 15 minutes later, a 28-year-old woman was slashed in the 4 train station at Center and Chambers Street — with the gash so deep that a tourniquet had to be applied to her leg.

Three Manhattan straphangers were slashed in separate attacks on Sunday — and police believe the same suspect is behind all three, sources told The Post. Cops on the scene at 86th Street and Lexington Avenue.

An employee mops the floor at the scene of a slashing at the East 86th and Lexington Avenue — Three women were slashed in the leg in separate Manhattan subway attacks on Sunday, all within less than 20 minutes, police sources said.

Scene of a slashing at the East 86th and Lexington Avenue subway — One woman required a tourniquet for her injury.

The woman was rushed to Bellevue Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, the sources said.

Cops believe all of the incidents, which all occurred along the 4/5/6 lines, could be connected.

The Post reported Saturday that the number of people busted with illegal knives in the subways in the five boroughs has jumped by 60% — 572 so far this year compared to 358 over the same time in 2022.

Over the last four years, the number has jumped by 126%, police data shows.