A Hasidic funeral in Borough Park erupted in chaos on Thursday afternoon, as NYPD efforts to break up the crowded procession were met with defiance from some mourners, leading to at least one arrest.

Video shared with Gothamist shows NYPD officers sprinting after a minivan — believed to be carrying the body of Rabbi Yehezkel Shraga Vagshal — as hundreds of Orthodox Jews packed the streets of 13th Avenue. Witnesses said that police handcuffed a young boy, and threatened others with summonses for violating social distancing orders and not wearing masks.

A spokesperson for the NYPD, Lieutenant John Grimpel, confirmed that one person was arrested, but could not provide any other details.

The incident comes just two days after Mayor Bill de Blasio personally dispersed a large funeral procession in Williamsburg. “The next gathering will be met with summonses and arrests, period," the mayor said on Wednesday. "If you have a large gathering — hundreds of people, thousands of people — we’re not even going to have a warning."

Members of the ultra-Orthodox community have accused de Blasio of unfairly singling out religious Jews. They claim that police were unnecessarily hostile on Thursday afternoon.

"They target us more than anyone else," said Albert Chattah, a Borough Park shop owner. "It's a funeral, people need to be able to give respect. They have to obey the law, but [police] are aggressive."

State Senator Simcha Felder, who represents the neighborhood, tweeted on Thursday that the mayor was "terrorizing people by sending in armies of cops during such stressful times." (Back in December, Felder called on Governor Andrew Cuomo to deploy the National Guard to patrol the neighborhood, following an uptick in anti-Semitic attacks.) 

Brooklyn's ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods have been among the most impacted by COVID-19 across the city. Earlier this month, Hasidic news sources reported that at least 700 members of the community have died from the disease.

Despite the devastating death toll, some rabbis have said it's unrealistic to expect a grieving population to abandon their public mourning ritual — known as levaya, which translates to "accompany." Without clear guidance from religious leaders, some members of the community feared that further clashes with police would only intensify.

"If this trend continues, then I think we have the makings of some serious civil unrest," said one source in the community, who has lost several family members to the virus and declined to go on record for fear of inciting backlash. "Emotions run high and that can descend into serious street rioting."

Inquiries to the Mayor's Office were not immediately returned.