A subway rider was stabbed in the back by an apparent stranger Friday night as he stepped off a train at a Manhattan station.
The 29-year-old victim had just stepped off a Brooklyn-bound L train at the First Ave. subway station near 14th St. in the East Village at about 8:45 p.m. when another passenger suddenly plunged a knife into his back, police and witnesses told the Daily News.
A security guard monitoring the platform witnessed the victim looking confused and in pain, and someone fleeing up the stairs to the street. Police later described the possible attacker as “an Asian man with a bag.”
“Someone came up behind him and stabbed him in the back,” said the security guard, who gave his name as Samba. “He never saw it coming.”
“He yelled, ‘Somebody punched me.’ But then we looked and we saw all the blood.”
Medics rushed the victim to Bellevue Hospital in stable condition.
Police were hoping a review of the station’s close circuit video cameras would help to identify the attacker.