Adorable kittens run onto tracks, shut down subway in Brooklyn

Two kittens got loose on the subway tracks in Brooklyn yesterday.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) cut power to the B and Q lines for about an hour as transit workers tried to herd the cute felines to safety.

"The announcer said it had to stop to rescue some cats," passenger Sandra Polel told the New York Daily News. "I didn't mind. I wanted to get home, but I also wanted the kittens to be safe."

It's still not known how the 4-week-old kittens got on the tracks, only that a woman reported that her kittens were loose in the subway system. The kittens' owner provided transit workers with cat food to help bribe the kittens to follow them. The strategy didn't work.

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The kittens darted around track debris, avoiding the desperate rescuers, often getting dangerously close to the high-voltage third rail.

Eventually, workers restored power and the trains began moving again. The kittens remained on the tracks. Train operators were instructed to move proceed with caution and to stop and notify the rail control centre if they saw anything moving on the tracks.

Fortunately, the story has a happy ending for the kittens. Later in the day, they were rescued from under the third rail of an above-ground express track.

MTA spokesman Kevin Ortiz tweeted that the kittens were safe.

The kittens are now in the custody of Animal Care & Control, NBC New York reports.