More than 50 injured after shirtless man unleashes bear spray during Pride gathering in NYC park, causing stampede

More than 50 people were injured during a Pride celebration at Washington Square Park Sunday evening when false reports of gunfire and the deployment of bear spray sparked a stampede of people fleeing for their lives, according to police and sources.A shirtless man unleashed the potent chemicals in the park — burning several bystanders’ eyes — at the same time, rumors of gunfire led thousands to rush out of the Greenwich Village park, believing their lives were in danger.

The man was arrested by police at the scene, according to the NYPD.It wasn’t immediately clear how many injuries were a result of the stampede and how many were due to the mace, but none were expected to be life-threatening.

Police estimated that there were roughly 10,000 people in the park at the time.Many rushed through the park in a panic and busted through police barriers.

The suspect apparently thought that he was going to be jumped, so he panicked and sprayed the bear mace in self-defense, sources told The Post.Many attendees at the park had no idea what was happening, celebrants lingering near the park after the chaos told The Post.Some thought that they heard popping and ran on instinct, figuring someone had opened fire on the crowd.“We all thought some fanatic with a gun was shooting people, so of course we all ran in whatever direction would get us out of the park the fastest.

But because there were thousands and thousands of people, you had all these barricades up preventing you from making the fastest escape.So we all had to file out in an organized fashion, which no one wanted to do because we were all scared,” Omari Loftin, a 20-year-old from Washington Heights, said.Loftin said that he saw multiple people with various injuries, including some flushing their eyes out and one young man with blood running down the side of his head.

Others said the barricades did more harm than good while they were trying to escape, and even contributed to some of the chaos.“Everyone�...