New York mayor Michael Bloomberg has come under heavy fire after it was reported he was playing golf at Mid Ocean Club in Bermuda, several hours after the deadly train crash in Bronx.

The derailment on the Metro-North Railroad, which killed four people and left dozens injured, occurred at 7.20am and it wasn’t until 1pm that Mr Bloomberg left the course and returned to the Big Apple on his private jet, according to the New York Metropolis, a blog which has contributors from the Wall Street Journal.

According to the blog, a spokesman for the mayor declined to discuss the mayor’s whereabouts.

By yesterday afternoon there had been close to 100 comments posted.

Later on Sunday, Bloomberg reportedly visited some of the injured in two hospitals but didn’t attend briefings at the scene of the accident.

He told reporters on Sunday night: “What can I do? I’m not a professional firefighter or a police officer.

“There’s nothing I can do. What I can do is make sure the right people from New York City — our police commissioner, our fire commissioner and our emergency management commissioner — are there and that they have all the resources they want.”