New York hammer attack: one dead, two injured

A man has died and two others are seriously injured after a hammer-wielding man went on a rampage inside a New York City restaurant in a seemingly random attack.

The assailant entered the Seaport Buffet in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, just after 5pm yesterday, “first attacking the owner at the front of the restaurant”, NBC reports.

He then made his way to the rear of the room, where he struck the chef and another employer with blows to the head, before fleeing through the car park, the New York Post reports.

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The restaurant’s chef, 34-year-old Fufai Pun, was pronounced dead on arrival at the city’s Lutheran Hospital, where the 60-year-old owner and 50-year-old employee are reported to be in a “critical condition”, says The New York Times.

Samantha Randazzo, the owner of a nearby seafood bar, told NBC that she had spoken to fleeing customers who sought shelter inside her restaurant.

“They said a guy came in crazy with a hammer and started hammering certain people, random people,” she said.

“He was just screaming crazy words, like ‘I'm killing everybody, world is hell’.”

NYPD detective George Tsourovakas told the New York Times that a suspect was apprehended close to the scene and that the weapon has been recovered.

Charges are pending against the man, who is expected to undergo a psychiatric evaluation.