A rampaging knife-wielding woman stabbed two people at New York City’s Times Square, leaving one dead before she was shot by police officers on Monday.

The incident happened around 4:30 p.m. outside One Times Square, where the city’s annual New Year’s Eve ball drop celebration is hosted, close to a New York Police Department substation.

New York Police Department confirmed the incident. At a press conference on Monday, Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said officers responded after receiving a distress call about “a woman armed with two knives who was stabbing people along Seventh Avenue.”

She said the woman stabbed a 68-year-old man and another 32-year-old woman in the abdomen. 

Both victims were taken to the hospital. However, female victim died as a result of the injury, while the man was said to be in stable condition.

Viral footage on social media shows a woman dressed in blue jeans and a pink shirt, holding two knives and charging at police officers before she was shot dead after a Taser failed to neutralise her.

Police identified the knife-wielding woman as Pamela Cisneros, 49, adding that investigations were ongoing to unravel more details about the knife attack.