Chaos on New York subway train as live crabs escape woman’s bag

Chaos ensued on a New York subway train after a passenger's bag full of live crabs broke open, resulting in the arthropods tumbling out.

The woman can be seen jumping out of her seat and rushing toward the train door before fellow passengers advise her to bring the bag away from the seats.

The video of the incident has garnered nearly 18 million views in three days on Instagram. It was shared by the page "SubwayCreaters", known for documenting the various kitschy behaviours of subway users and their pets, which often include snakes.

The video opens with a man in the opposite row calmly holding one of the crabs that escaped from the massive bag. Another person is seen approaching her to help bring the crabs together but quickly stepping back when more of them start to crawl on the floor. The Independent could not verify when the incident happened, but the Instagram handle uploaded the video on 27 September.

Amid the commotion, two passengers offer their bags to the woman to catch the crabs and put them inside, aided by the man who initially tried to help.

The woman can be heard saying "thank you" to the passengers as she tried to rein in the arthropods .

"It is nice that they came together to help her," wrote Instagram user Carla J in the comment box of the post.

"The way dude is nonchalantly holding the crab... the level of unbothered I'm tryna be," wrote another person.

"You've heard of snakes on a plane but have you heard of crabs on a train," one of the popular comments read.

Earlier, footage shared by the same Instagram page showed a rodent scurrying down the tracks of the subway with a whole crab in its mouth.

In another video, shared a few months prior, a rat can be seen dragging a big slice of pizza along the tracks.