A New York woman who said she hates Hindus and killed a Hindu man by pushing him under a metro train has been sentenced to 24 years in prison, a local has prosecutor announced.

When Erika Menendez was arrested after killing Sunnando Sen in December 2012, she told the police: “I hate Muslims and the Hindus.”

State Supreme Court Justice Gregory L. Lasak, sentenced Menendez calling her actions “a particularly brutal homicide”.

Richard Brown, the district attorney for New York’s Queens borough, who announced the sentencing on Wednesday, said, “The defendant’s actions clearly show that she is a threat to society and deserving of today’s sentence.”

Menendez had earlier told a New York Post reporter that she had been attacking Hindus and Muslims.

“I just wanted to hurt Muslims and Hindus ever since the World Trade Center terror attack by Al Qaeda in 2001,” she told the reporter. “I’ve been beating up Muslims and Hindus for a long time.”

Sen, 46, who had been a PhD student at New York University, worked in a copy shop at the time of his death.

Menendez, 33, pleaded guilty to a charge of manslaughter, saving her from the possibility of conviction on a more serious murder charge and helping prosecutors avoid conducting a lengthy trial.