NYU student stabbed in back in unprovoked attack

A New York University student was randomly stabbed Thursday in a broad daylight attack by a screaming assailant who ran away, police and sources said.

The 20-year-old film student, who wanted to be identified only by his first name, Nicolo, was on his lunch break between classes and walking south on Lafayette Street near East 4th Street – in front of the 404 Fitness building – when He was stabbed in the back, police said.

“I just walked past him … I was on the phone,” Nicolo told The Post on Friday. “And then I felt like something was right in my back and I turned around and I saw him holding something, like you would hold a knife to stab someone, but it looked like a pen.”

The crazy man – who Nicolo said he had never seen before – said something incomprehensible during the random attack at 1:30 p.m., Nicolo said.

“He was screaming the same thing over and over again, but I didn’t really understand what it was,” the victim said. “But it was probably something profane. Like he just yelled at me, but like I didn’t know what he actually said.”

The suspect then fled south on Lafayette Street, troopers said.

The victim sought medical attention himself and said he was recovering on Friday after his stab wounds were “dressed up.”

The suspect was still at large on Friday. He is described as a man with a light complexion and medium build, around 1.70 meters tall and his long hair pulled back in a ponytail, police said.

Nicolo, a sophomore from Los Angeles, said crime wasn’t a big problem for him when he enrolled at NYU because he came from “a different urban place.”

But he said the attack reminded him to stay vigilant.

“It just makes me more cautious, which I think is the big thing,” he said. “Because I think I’m already pretty cautious, but now it’s like, ‘Okay, well, they can get you from behind.'”