A 25-year-old man is fighting for his life in John Hunter Hospital after he was stabbed in the neck in an allegedly unprovoked attack, which also saw his co-worker wounded.
The two men, who cannot be named at this time, were chefs at Newcastle's Sapphire Indian Restaurant, with the 28-year-old undergoing surgery on a serious stab wound to his arm from the incident near Devonshire Street this morning.
Their employers Loveleen Nagpal and Saurabh Prabhakar were devastated to learn the news this morning, being emergency contacts for the pair whose families are overseas.
"It's so shocking, they are very close to us, most of the time we are together," Ms Nagpal said.
"One of them is in a serious condition, his father passed away two months ago in his home country Nepal, we haven't called his family yet because we don't want his mother to go into shock.
"They are both really nice and innocent, they would never say anything to anyone."
According to Ms Nagpal, the pair had gone on a night out to The Exchange Hotel in Hamilton before heading to KFC on Hunter Street for a bite to eat.
When it was closed, both began to walk to King Street McDonald's through the alleyway on Devonshire Street when they noticed they were being followed by "two guys and a girl".
"They attacked [the 28-year-old] first on his arm, he started running and they got to [the 25-year-old] and stabbed him on the neck," Ms Nagpal said.
She said the man who had been stabbed in the arm managed to get into a police car that was travelling on Hunter Street at the time.
"Luckily the police were there, but the group ran away," she said.
"Police rang the ambulance and they came into hospital.
"We have all been here, our whole team has been here from the morning, it's very shocking."
Ms Nagpal said hospital staff have told them the 25-year-old's injury is life-threatening.
"It's a deep injury, really deep, so until [name removed] recovers we can't say," she said.
"It's a life-threatening situation, anything could happen at anytime, we are thinking we will call his mother and bring her here."
She said the 25-year-old was carrying about $500 to $700 in cash at the time, which is now missing.
The restaurant will remain open tonight with a limited menu and Ms Nagpal has asked the community to be patient and support them during this difficult time.
Police have canvassed a number of businesses in the area for CCTV footage and have appealed to the public for further information.
According to Darren Liu, owner of the Asian Star in Devonshire Street, it's not the first time there have been issues with violence in the alleyway near his business.
"I came to work because I saw the police on the street and cars and I noticed something must have happened last night," he said.
"They came to ask us if we saw or heard anything but we didn't, and we unfortunately don't have a security camera on the alleyway outside, we have a little one on our property but unfortunately don't have any footage."
He said with bars and restaurants in the area open late, they often call the police due to issues with intoxicated people.
"Hopefully in the future police could patrol these areas in the evening a bit more than usual," he said.
"Most of the problems we have with people are that they are drunk."
He said the incident was concerning given the staff at his business are mostly female and they work late through the night.
"We try to take care of them and walk them around the street to their cars, to make sure they're safe leaving in this neighbourhood but it definitely is a concern," he said.
"For me as a business owner on this street I wish they would have more police here during the evening time."
Down at The Star Hotel, manager Sheree Green said their business closed about 9pm, hours before the attack.
"I had no idea what had happened," she said.
"It is a worry, we haven't had that extent of violence in the eight months I've been here.
"But it is a concern when I'm closing up by myself at night."
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