A 20-year-old man was stabbed Monday night near the Villimalé ferry terminal in the capital Malé.
According to the Indira Gandhi Memorial Hospital, the victim is in stable condition now after undergoing treatment for three stab wounds.
No arrests have been made so far. A police spokesman said the knife assault was reported around 10 pm last night.
Eyewitnesses told newspaper Mihaaru that the victim was stabbed by two men on motorbikes after he exited the ferry terminal. He was rushed to the nearby IGMH by a group of people near the terminal.
Local newspaper Mihaaru reported that two men on motorbikes arrived at the ferry terminal and stabbed the man who got off a ferry from Villimale’.
He was reportedly taken to nearby IGMH by a crowd that gathered at the ferry terminal.
The two assailants reportedly fled after the stabbing.
According to police crime statistics, 277 cases of assault have so far been reported this year. Some 776 cases of assault were reported to the police in 2016, down from 932 in 2015.
Earlier this month, a 15-year-old boy in Addu City was severely injured when a gang reportedly attacked him with an axe.
The teenager sustained severe head injuries and was transferred to Malé for further treatment. Three suspects were arrested in connection with the incident.
In late April, police apprehended four suspects – including one minor – in connection to two separate gang assaults in capital Male’.
An 18-year-old man was stabbed in Malé amid a spike in violent assaults in the capital last November. He recovered after undergoing surgery for severe head injuries.
The police at the time arrested 20 suspects and impounded three motorbikes. The 20 young men included suspects in recent assaults as well as repeat offenders taken into custody to prevent further violence, the police said.
The assaults came after a period of calm in Malé after a spike in gang violence last June saw two 14-year-old boys killed in a fight between rival groups. They were the youngest victims of gang violence in the Maldives.
After the fatal stabbings, former Home Minister Umar Naseer blamed juvenile delinquency on “blind love” from parents and announced plans to send off minors involved in gangs to a police training facility on the island of Vaanee in Dhaalu Atoll.
Some 19 teenagers were sent to a two-month training camp on the island that concluded in August.
In the wake of the violence in June, suspected gang members were also monitored through electronic tags, a measure introduced in the new anti-terrorism law.
