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Nurse stabbed in the neck during break outside Adelaide hospital

An Adelaide nurse on a break has been stabbed in the neck by a man who asked her for a cigarette.

The woman was outside the Lyell McEwin Hospital at Elizabeth Vale about 6.30pm on Monday when she was approached by the stranger.

She was stabbed with a sharp object and is being treated at the hospital where she remains in a stable condition with non life-threatening injuries.

An unnamed witness told ABC Radio Adelaide he saw a man “yelling obscenities” at the woman but didn’t see the altercation.

Lyell McEwin Hospital at Elizabeth Vale is pictured. A nurse was stabbed in the neck by a man outside while on a break on Monday about 6.30pm.
A nurse on a break was stabbed outside Lyell McEwin Hospital at Elizabeth Vale on Monday. Police are still searching for her attacker. Source: Nine News

He did, however, see the woman being taken into hospital after the attack.

Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation state secretary Elizabeth Dabars told Adelaide Now the organisation will be “ looking into this matter very closely”.

“We have been raising concerns about security in hospitals and patient aggression,” she said.

Lee Odenwalder, South Australian Shadow Minister for Police and Emergency Services, said the attack was “abhorrent, cowardly”.

The woman’s attacker is described as Caucasian, about 185cm tall with short, dark hair and was wearing a black jumper.

In 2017, Patrick Pritzwald-Stegmann suffered fatal head injuries after he was punched at Box Hill Hospital for telling a group of people not to smoke near the entrance.

His attacker Joseph Esmaili, 24, was jailed for more than a decade in April.

With AAP

Anyone who may have witnessed the incident is asked to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or use the online reporting page.