A person of interest was taken into custody after a woman died after being lit on fire while she was asleep on an F train in Brooklyn, police say.

A suspect has been arrested in New York over the death of a woman who was set on fire on a subway train in Brooklyn. Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch described the incident on Sunday as "one of the most depraved crimes one person could possibly commit against another human being".

Police were investigating a death aboard an F train early Sunday morning after a woman was on fire, according to the NYPD. The woman’s age was not immediately known, but authorities found her on an idle train in Coney Island at the Stillwell Terminal.

The "person of interest" was taken into custody hours after the attack while riding another train, according to NYPD Transit Chief Joseph Gulotta.

Police arrested a man they said set a woman on fire while she appeared to be asleep on a New York City subway train on Sunday morning, killing her. The woman, who has not been identified, sat motionlessly aboard a stationary F train at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue subway station in Brooklyn at about 7:30 a.

NYPD officials said a person of interest was arrested after allegedly using a lighter to set a woman who was sleeping in a subway car on fire in Coney Island, New York.