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A 41-year-old Korean New Zealander says he still gets nightmares after being stabbed in broad daylight in South Auckland.
The man, who wanted to be known only as Lee, said he was driving to work last Wednesday, June 19, when he needed to make an urgent phone call.
He stopped on the side of the road across the street from the Due Drop Events Centre and got out of the car to make the call.
As he was making the call, he was approached by a man who stabbed him in the head, shoulder and back, Lee said.
A police spokesman said police were called at about 8.35am on June 19 to Great South Road after a report of an assault.
The man, who faces a maximum penalty of 14 years imprisonment is next due to appear on Tuesday, July 16.
Lee said after getting into a car, he begged the driver to lock the door and save him.
Lee said he no longer felt safe in Auckland after being stabbed in broad daylight on his way to work.
“When I first got attacked, I thought he was just punching me, but then I saw that blood flowing down and realised I had been stabbed,” Lee said, speaking to the Herald from his hospital bed.
Lee said he ran across the road and shouted for help from passing vehicles, and several responded by sounding their horn and yelling at the attacker.
“It was peak-hour traffic and there was a lot of cars there, which in a way was fortunate,” Lee said.
“But I never expected that something like this could happen to anyone in broad daylight here in Auckland.”
Lee said that eventually one driver let him into his car, and he begged the driver: “Please lock the door and save me.”
He was bleeding heavily, he said, and left blood marks on the stranger’s car window and seat.
Lee, who has lived in New Zealand for 30 years, said he no longer felt safe in Auckland and did not want to be identified as he feared reprisal.
“I still get recurring nightmares about what happened,” he said.
Lincoln Tan, a multimedia journalist for the NZ Herald, specialises in covering stories around diversity and immigration.