KEY POINTS:
Friends of a couple assaulted out of the blue on a North Shore street have praised the injured pair and condemned their attackers.
Ericka Rancourt, 21, and Oskar Carroll, 25, were walking home along Lake Rd about 4am on Tuesday when they were viciously attacked.
Ms Rancourt -
whose head injuries were so serious that she needed brain surgery - is an AUT University student, working towards a communications degree.
She also has part-time jobs at George FM and at the Lone Star restaurant at Takapuna.
Kayleigh van der Watt, who works with Ms Rancourt, described the pair as "amazing people".
Ms Rancourt and Mr Carroll had been "kinda hanging out" with others earlier on the evening of the attack, and had been walking home when they were attacked out of the blue.
"I hope those kids [their attackers] rot in hell, or something," Ms van der Watt said.
Police have arrested four men in connection with a series of four North Shore attacks, including the one on Mr Carroll and Ms Rancourt.
The Russian victims of the other attack, which occurred in Milford hours before Mr Carroll and Ms Rancourt were attacked, remain in Middlemore Hospital in a stable condition.
A friend of Mr Carroll and Ms Rancourt, Sam Mitford-Taylor - who last saw the pair a few days ago - described them as "the nicest people you would meet".
Mr Mitford-Taylor used to work with Ms Rancourt and described her as a friendly girl.
Mr Carroll is believed to have been discharged from hospital yesterday, but Ms Rancourt remains at Auckland Hospital where she had brain surgery overnight on Tuesday. She is understood to be recovering well.
Mr Mitford-Taylor said the unprovoked attacks by strangers were happening "a bit more often" on North Shore streets.
"More people are going out and starting something."
The first of the group's four victims, Daniel Swafford, said he was punched in the neck as he rode his bicycle home from a friend's house only 15 minutes before the Milford attack.
Mr Swafford, 19, said he became suspicious when an older car drove past him, slowing to stop about 40m ahead as he rode near the intersection of Taharoto Rd and Shakespeare Rd in Takapuna at 1.15am on Tuesday. He crossed the road to avoid them.
"One of the guys jumped out of the car and went across to the other side of the road and started to intercept me," he said.
"I started to ride faster to see if I could get past them. He kind of took a swing at me and hit me in the neck. "I started going as fast as I could after that."
