A man waits for the subway in New York in this December 19, 2012 file photo. (REUTERS/Andrew Burton)

A 26-year-old New Jersey man lost his leg after he curled up to sleep off a drunken buzz next to subway tracks in New York City and a subway ran it over, police said.

The man, from Elizabethtown, N.J., tried to curl up under part of a subway train platform in Woodside, Queens, on Sunday, the New York Post reported. The resting spot was out of the way and he wasn't noticed there, the newspaper said.

Unfortunately, the nap spot was right next to the subway tracks, and a train at 4:40 a.m. ran over the man's leg, police said.

The man, whose name wasn't released, was taken to a nearby hospital. He is expected to survive, the Post reported.

Woodside is a neighbourhood in the New York City borough of Queens.