Four men believed to be homeless have been beaten to death as they slept in New York’s Chinatown, police have said.
A fifth man is in a critical condition in New York Downtown Hospital after the street rampage by an attacker who used a long metal object recovered by police.
Officers arrested a 24 – year-old suspect who is in custody but has yet to be charged.
The victims were said to be asleep when they were attacked in three different locations in the early hours of Saturday in the Manhattan borough of Chinatown.
Police were first alerted just before 2am while one assault was in progress.
They arrived on Bowery Street to find a homeless man unconscious with a head trauma.
The four men who died all suffered trauma to the head, police said.
Officers found the suspect, reportedly also homeless, holding a three-foot-long, blood-covered metal object that appeared to be from a construction site, the New York Post reported.
The identities of the victims have not been released.
Detectives are investigating the motive for the killings.
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