Woman lit on fire at Toronto subway station, man in custody, police say

A woman is in hospital after she was lit on fire at a subway station in Toronto's west end.

The Toronto Transit Commission's chief executive officer Rick Leary says the agency is "shocked by today's attack at Kipling Station."

"Our thoughts are with the victim for a full recovery," Leary said in a statement.

Toronto police say they were called to the Kipling Avenue and Dundas Street West area around 12:30 p.m. for reports of a woman assaulted.

Police told CBC News a man poured a liquid substance on the woman and ignited it, leaving her with life-altering injuries.

The woman was rushed to Sunnybrook Hospital. There's no word on her current condition.

A man has since been arrested.

Friday's incident comes on the heels of two other notable attacks at Toronto subway stations. In April, international student Kartik Vasudev was killed in a shooting outside Sherbourne subway station. That same month, a 39-year-old narrowly escaped being hit by a train after she was pushed onto the tracks from a subway platform at Bloor-Yonge subway station.

Late last month, a man was robbed and beaten outside Dundas subway station. Christian Garcia told CBC News this week he's calling for more security and staff at TTC stops.

"I know incidents like this are concerning for our customers — and I share that concern," Leary said in Friday's statement. "We move hundreds of millions of customers every year without incident, but we cannot and do not take that for granted."

The statement goes on to say that the TTC has several safety measures in place including special constables who patrol the system, cameras and emergency alarms in all stations and vehicles as well as the SafeTTC app to report suspicious incidents.

Leary says the agency is also recruiting new special constables and modernizing stations to add more cameras and have more staff visible to deter crime.

The union representing Toronto transit workers also issued a statement, saying it was "horrified" by the incident, and thanked the transit riders and riders who rushed to the woman's aid.

Subway service has been suspended from Kipling to Islington stations while police investigate.