The pain was unsettling enough for Raizy Glauber, six months pregnant with her first child, that she and her husband Nathan called a livery cab in the middle of the night and headed for the hospital.

"It was sudden," said Nathan's cousin, Sarah Gluck. "She just wasn't feeling well, and they went to check it out."

A few minutes later, four blocks from their home in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn, the couple's cab was struck by a BMW BMW.XE -2.12% sedan just after midnight on Sunday. Mr. and Ms. Glauber, both 21 years old, were declared dead, but Bellevue Hospital Center doctors delivered her baby—a boy—by post-mortem caesarean section, authorities said.

The child is expected to survive and will be raised by members of the extended family.

The Glaubers' deaths sent Brooklyn's Orthodox Jewish community into a spasm of mourning, with hundreds of the Satmar Hasidic sect attending a funeral Sunday afternoon. As a rabbi gave an impassioned eulogy in Yiddish at Congregation Yetev Lev synagogue, mourners cried openly, some covering their eyes in grief. One woman fainted and was tended to by authorities.

Afterward, the crowd spilled onto the sidewalk. The two coffins, draped in black cloth, were carried through the street and taken away for a private burial.

"We just lost a lovely woman, lovely couple," said Miriam Stern, a friend and neighbor. "We just lost a beautiful couple, two wonderful people always with a smile on their face, always trying to help. Everyone is just so heartbroken."

As the Glaubers' family mourned the dead and prepared to raise the couple's newborn, authorities were searching for a man and a woman seen fleeing the BMW that struck the livery cab, a law-enforcement official said.

Witnesses told police that the BMW was traveling at a high speed. The car is registered to a woman in the Bronx, the official said. She was being interviewed Sunday afternoon at the NYPD's 47th precinct in the Bronx.

The cab driver, Pedro Nunez, 32, suffered minor injuries. He was treated and released from Bellevue, said Fernando Mateo of the New York State Federation of Taxi Drivers.

Family and friends said Ms. Glauber worked in her brother's hardware business while Mr. Glauber studied at the Rabbinical College of Bnei Shimon Yisroel of Shopron in Williamsburg. She hailed from a prominent rabbinical family, while Mr. Glauber's family founded a clothing line for Orthodox Jews called G&G Clothing, said Isaac Abraham, a family friend.

"Nobody is ever prepared for a situation like this," Mr. Abraham said. "The crushing blow of this beautiful couple bringing a new life into this world, there are no words."

The couple was married a little more than a year ago, friends said, and they were excited about becoming parents.

"I can't even imagine, the loss is so big and so tragic," said Ms. Glauber's aunt Ruchel Bochner, 56, of Brooklyn. "[Ms. Glauber] was such a warm heart. She was so warm to everybody. Everybody loved her."

Ms. Glauber's pregnancy appeared to be a normal one, said her husband's cousin, Ms. Gluck, 45. When she began experiencing pain on Saturday night, the couple decided to visit an obstetrician at Long Island Hospital Center, police and family said.

The Glaubers were in the back seat when the crash occurred at the intersection of Wilson Street and Kent Avenue. Wilson is a block-long, one-way street at the point with a stop sign before it empties onto Kent.

It wasn't clear Sunday afternoon if the cab driver had failed to stop or didn't notice the approaching BMW. Police didn't say whether the victims were wearing seat belts.

Neighbor Beila Schwartz said she rode the elevator with Ms. Glauber's parents shortly after they learned that their daughter had been involved in an accident. "They told me that they had a little accident and to pray for her daughter, Raizy," Ms. Schwartz said.

Mr. Abraham said the Satmar community's "entire attention" is focused on raising the Glaubers' child. "Everybody wants the baby," said Ms. Gluck.

 hotsauceman1 wrote:
Wow, they better capture those responsible.

 Cheesecat wrote:

 hotsauceman1 wrote:
Wow, they better capture those responsible.

Nice, this made me laugh.

 reds8n wrote:
I'm afraid the child didn't survive it seems.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-21658858