The suspect continued up Seventh Avenue towards 42nd Street, which is where she stabbed the second victim, Piacenti, who did not survive after being taken to hospital.

Bank of America said in a statement to Reuters: “We are shocked and deeply saddened by the tragic loss of our colleague. She was a valued teammate who will be greatly missed. Our hearts go out to her family and all of her loved ones.”

The suspect continued on Seventh Avenue, which is when police tried to get her to drop her weapons, speaking to her for four minutes, the NYPD commissioner said.

“During the encounter she told the officers ‘I’m not dropping anything, I’d rather kill both of you’. She repeated ‘I will kill you'”, Tisch said.

The suspect waved knives towards the officers, who then used Tasers, which were “ineffective” and did not stop her from heading towards them.

NYPD officers then shot the woman, who was later also pronounced dead at Bellevue Hospital.

The suspect was later identified as 49-year-old Pamela Cisneros of Queens, New York City. She had never been arrested but had a “documented mental health history with the NYPD, with one incident in 2018 and one in 2019”, Tisch added.

A tourist from Boston, Melinda Puzon, told the BBC’s US reporting partner CBS News that she heard the shots and saw “so many people on the street”.

“It’s very shocking.”

Correction: This story has been updated to reflect that the incident happened on Monday after a previous version said it was on Wednesday