Times of India
 
MELBOURNE, Apr 29: A 23-year-old Indian student, working as a taxi driver, was brutally stabbed and left bleeding on the roadside here on Tuesday.

The Indian, who was lying injured for over two hours, was found at 6 am local time disoriented and with hypothermia near a hotel in Clifton Hill, several hundred metres from his smashed car and was taken to hospital in a critical condition.

The victim, whose name has not been released, had stab wounds in the upper body and the homicide squad has been notified "as a precaution", police said.

The Indian had apparently just started doing night shifts driving the cabs.

According to detective Senior Constable Brendan Smith, the suspect was possibly a passenger who might have driven the taxi a short distance after the attack before it collided with a power pole.

Smith said the police were unclear of the motives and had not been able to talks to the victim due to his condition.

"We are unclear of the motives. We believe there was one other person in the taxi," he said

Victoria Police were reviewing CCTV footage from the taxi and have released photos that might help identify the attacker.

Taxi drivers blocked a major intersection in central Melbourne to protest the incident.

The secretary of the Victorian taxi drivers association, Pritam Singh Gill, said about 200 cabbies blocked Swanston street to demand that all vehicles be fitted immediately with security screens.

"The drivers are very upset with this," he said. "The Government promised us the security and safety for the drivers more than 18 months ago and they haven't done anything so far," Gill was quoted as saying by media here.