More than 500 people were evacuated from two trains today after a track fire erupted near a Lower East Side subway station, authorities said.
A downtown J train got stuck in the tunnel between the Delancey/Essex and Bowery stations at about 2:47 p.m.
“Smoke from the outside started to come inside the car,” said Lower East Side resident David Odoku.
The smoke wasn’t enough to make anyone choke or panic, Odoku and other straphangers said.
But they said they were stuck in the tunnel for around 20 minutes before the train was rolled back to Delancey/Essex so they could escape.
A second group of passengers on a Queens-bound M train was evacuated from an train just as it arrived at the station from Brooklyn, the MTA said.
No one was reported injured in the incident, which forced the MTA to suspend rush hour J and M service in the area.
It took firefighters until 4:30 p.m. to extinguish the smoky blaze, which broke out in an electrical vault between the Delancey/Essex and Bowery stations.