The Manhattan shelter near where a mob of migrants attacked two NYPD cops is a lawless zone plagued by open-air drug peddling and all-night brawls, neighbors told The Post Thursday.
Tourists and New Yorkers working in the area alike were shocked by the mayhem surrounding the converted shelter at the onetime landmarked Candler Building in Midtown, steps from Times Square.
“There’s drug dealing almost all day long,” said a worker at a commercial building on West 41st Street, where the rear entrance of the shelter is located.
“Tables with watches set up. You see stolen clothes coming in. At night you see fights going on in the street, people running around with no shirt on,” said the staffer, who asked to remain anonymous.
He said he even witnessed a a fistfight among the asylum-seekers around 4 a.m., which spilled out into the middle of the Midtown street.
“You see knives, big sticks being swung at each other,” the worker added. “All the buildings here are adding security, so there’s additional cost to the buildings.”