French tourist left in critical condition after crazed stranger slashes his neck in Harlem 

A 27-year-old French tourist is in a hospital in New York after having his neck randomly slashed as he was strolling with his girlfriend. 

The couple had just emerged from an IHOP on Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard and 135th St in, Harlem, Upper Manhattan, and were walking south when a man took out a knife and slashed the neck and face of the tourist. 

Terrifying video from immediately after the attack shows the young man bleeding heavily and kneeling on the ground as a member of the emergency services attempts to stop blood.   

NYPD is seeking assistance in identifying the attacker who was picked up on CCTV footage and is described as a black male in his 20s wearing all black and white Air Jordan sneakers. 

The attack took place at approximately 11am on Friday, February 14, as police in the 32nd Precinct responded to the call of a male assaulted at 132 Street and 7th Avenue in Harlem. 

Upon arrival, police discovered a 27-year-old French male with a laceration to the left side of his neck. 

The man had been walking from an IHOP with his girlfriend when a man walking alongside them pulled out a box cutter and slashed his face and neck in an unprovoked attack.  

He was rushed to Harlem Hospital and is said to be in a critical but stable condition. 

Cell phone footage from the scene shows emergency services holding a piece of cloth to the man’s neck in an attempt to stop blood loss as his concerned girlfriend also tries to help. 

Cell phone footage from the scene shows the man’s panicked girlfriend attempting to aid emergency services hold the injury as the man kneels in a pool of blood on the street

The French man’s blood could be seen on the side walk after the attack in Harlem

The 27-year-old is awake and alert and can be seen interacting with the officers helping him. He is said to be a French citizen who is in New York visiting friends. 

No arrest has yet been made and the search for the attacker, who was identified in CCTV footage, is ongoing.  

Police continued to hunt throughout Friday for a black male in his 20s wearing all black and white Air Jordan sneakers. 

Police marked off the area as the hunt continued for a man who slashed the face and neck of a French tourist on Friday morning in an unprovoked attack that left him in a critical condition

NYPD were called to the scene just after 11am on Friday and continue to hunt for the suspect

Witnesses described the attack as completely random and unprovoked, saying that the attacker walked up side-by-side with the French man and looked him in the eye before pulling out his knife. 

 ‘A man and woman were walking down the street, and a guy was walking beside them, like side-by-side. Then [the attacker] turns towards [the victim], looked him in the eye and pulled out — it looked like a box cutter — and sliced him on the neck,’ a witness told the New York Post. 

‘He didn’t know him,’ they added. 

‘He even looked at the guy before he cut him and made a surprised face.’ 

The attack happened here at 132nd St and Adam Clayton Powell Blvd in Upper Manhattan

The couple had just emerged from this iHop in Harlem when they were attacked at random

Locals were shocked by the incident with one local worker telling the Post: ‘I’m so surprised. I just want them to catch this guy. It’s so random, and it could have been me.’

 ‘I think it’s a random attack and so unexpected,’ added William Modeste, 38, a local real-estate agent with Uptown Flats. 

‘We always have plenty of visitors in the neighborhood, and when I heard about it, I just thought, “This person had cruelty on his mind.”‘