After a brief lull in attacks on Indian students in Australia, another youth from the community, who also worked as a cabbie, was stabbed in the chest by unidentified assailants in Melbourne on Wednesday, police said.
The 23-year-old student was attacked and left to bleed on a Brunswick West street, they said.
The victim parked his taxi outside his girlfriend's home on Collier Crescent in the wee hours today and rang her to bring his dinner outside when someone approached his vehicle, The Age reported, without naming the student.
His girlfriend heard the driver scream out over the phone as he was attacked, police officer Greg Johnson was quoted as saying by the paper.
The woman ran outside and found her boyfriend lying outside the car, bleeding with a single stab wound to the chest.
Paramedics were called to the scene and took the youth to Royal Melbourne Hospital where he remains in a serious condition.
Police do not believe the attack was racially motivated or an attempted robbery as the man still had cash in his pocket and his mobile phone, the paper said.
Investigators are examining whether another car was involved. The taxi has damage to the rear of the vehicle and bits of a broken front headlight were found near the scene.
"That is certainly one of the lines of inquiry we'll be looking along, that it could be a road rage incident," Johnson said.
Intensive care paramedic Sean Lowell said they arrived at the scene within eight minutes to find the man on the ground next to his car.
"The man had been stabbed in the upper body and first aid was being applied by police officers," Lowell said adding "when we arrived police were helping stem the blood flow by applying pressure to his wound."
"Given the seriousness of his condition, it was important for him to get further treatment at hospital as soon as possible."
Police said officers were door-knocking the area and checking CCTV footage from inside the taxi.
The attack came a month after 22-year-old Indian youth Sai Ratan Tiwari was punched in his face by a group of Australians, who also told the victim that "in this place there is no home for you".
A total of 95 cases of attacks on Indians have been reported so far this year in Australia as sssagainst 17 incidents of assaults in 2008. PTI
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