FDNY Firefighters Rescue Boy who Fell Through Subway Grate

An 11-year-old boy took a hellish tumble through an emergency subway grate at a Brooklyn playground Wednesday, authorities said.

The youngster was playing at the Rudd Playground on Aberdeen St. when he dropped through a grate leading to an area in the Bushwick Ave.- Aberdeen St. L train station just after 5 p.m., police said.

Firefighters rescued the stunned boy — who escaped serious injury — and medics took him to Kings County Hospital, cops said.

The child was playing in a covered fenced-off area between two basketball courts, lined with subway grates, authorities said.

“He was sitting on the edge, swinging his legs, and he just slipped off,” said an 11-year-old boy playing in the park with the victim. “One of his cousins was yelling, ‘Help! Help!’ He fell down to the subway. They opened the gate and they pulled him up. He was bleeding from the head and he was crying.”

The boy did not fall onto the tracks, but rather onto a landing above the train tracks, a transit source said.

The row of grates is typically blocked off by a fence that surrounds it on all sides, but vandals cut it at the post and peeled it back, Parks Department officials said Wednesday night.

One of the grates was missing Wednesday night, though it’s not clear if the children who often play in the fenced-off area removed it.

“Our thoughts are with the child and his family,” MTA spokesman Andrei Berman said. “We have dispatched a team to investigate what occurred and ensure the site is safe and secure. The safety of New Yorkers is always our top priority.”

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