MAD DASH: The Florida-based dance troupe was detained after trying to run through the Lincoln Tunnel because of a traffic snarl. (Michael Sofronski)
A camouflage-clad Florida dance troupe desperate to make it to a live TV talent show set off a rush-hour terror scare when they ditched their cars in merciless Lincoln Tunnel traffic and tried to sprint through the tube.
The FBI-NYPD Joint Terrorism Task Force was called in — and a massive contingent of heavily armed cops surrounded the harmless performers, who stood teary-eyed in their showy costumes as hundreds of angry drivers were stuck in the snarl.
“They drew their guns on us at first,” said Landon Burse, 24, the group’s executive director who arranged the appearance on BET’s “106 & Park” segment “Wild on Wednesday.”
“It was terrifying. I was crying,” said Eternity Odom, 16, one of the four girls who perform in the group.
The tunnel was closed for 45 minutes before cops realized the eight-member team was headed to the studio on West 57th Street. They eventually offered them a police escort to make the show.
But it was too late — the hard-headed producers of the live talent show told them not to bother, sending them in a trail of tears back down the New Jersey Turnpike.
The group, called “Club Envy,” had set out from Jacksonville about 24 hours earlier with stardust in their eyes as they hit I-95 for the 1,158 mile trip north — a trip for which they spent three months holding local fundraisers.
The first 23½ hours went off without a hitch, but the trip hit a traffic snarl at the tunnel’s New Jersey helix around 5:15 p.m. Wednesday.
That’s when seven performers and a manager leapt from the two-vehicle convoy and attempted to hoof it for the last five miles.
Alarmed Port Authority cops saw the youths in costumes — including unfortunate camouflage-colored shorts and vests — and immediately called the Joint Terrorism Task Force.
Among them were Burse and three young men who perform in the group — Ronnie Killing Jr., 20; Dontel Jabal Madison, 18; Darius Hutchins, 19.
In addition to Odom, three other 16-year-old girls also began sprinting toward Manhattan — Adaya Foster, Kenya Clark and Courtney King.
They made it all the way to the Manhattan side — and could actually see the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel — when cops stepped in and detained them.
They were able to explain the group’s predicament to a Port Authority lieutenant, who tried to help them.
“The lieutenant called the guy at BET and told him, ‘Hey, I can clear the traffic to get these kids there quickly,’ but the guy from BET said, ‘It’s past 6 p.m. and we don’t need them now,’ ” Burse said.
Pat Charles, a writer for the BET show, insisted they “didn’t get a call from the cops until they were already supposed to be off the air.”
“Unfortunately, the group could not participate in last night’s show,” added BET spokeswoman Marcy Polanco.
She said the station was willing to reschedule another appearance for the performers.
Odom said she learned a valuable lesson.
“There are a lot of fumes in that tunnel, and we could have passed out or gotten hit by a car,” she said. “The next time we come here, we’ll stay in our cars.”
Additional reporting by John Doyle