The NYPD has a suspect in custody after a New York City subway rider hit a stranger in the face with a metal pipe and fractured his skull after an argument.

The 35-year-old suspect, initially described as a Hispanic man, is being held at the Transit Robbery Squad in Manhattan. The 59-year-old victim is hospitalized in serious but stable condition.

Police say the victim got into a verbal dispute with another passenger aboard a southbound No. 2 Train near the West Broadway and Chambers Street station in Manhattan, just before 11:30PM on Saturday.

The suspect then struck the victim in the face with a metal tool and fled away on foot when the train stopped at Chambers Street.

The victim was transported to the hospital in serious, but stable condition. He suffered a fractured skull and broken eye socket.

Police have released video showing the two men seated as one gestures at the other, then stands up and gets into a swinging stance before the video stops. In an apparently later section of video, he puts the pipe on a hand truck and starts wheeling away. The other man appears to hold a hand to his head.

(YWN / AP)