A man was stabbed in the neck in an apparently unprovoked attacked outside of New York City’s Madison Square Garden on Friday, according to police.

The 25-year-old victim was seated in an outdoor dining area at Féile, an Irish pub on West 33rd Street close to the arena, when the stabbing occured at around 11.10pm.

“The victim informed police that while he was sitting at the outdoor dining area of the location an unknown male approached him and stabbed him, unprovoked, with an unknown sharp object,” the New York Police Department told The Independent in a statement.

The attacker fled on foot. Police canvassed the area and eventually caught the suspect, named as 36-year-old Bronx resident David Helles.

The victim, who has not been identified, was taken to Bellevue Hospital where he is recovering from non-life-threatening injuries.

Mr Helles has been charged with two counts of assault, reckless endangerment, criminal posession of a weapon, disorderly, conduct, and harassment.

The area around MSG was packed with hockey fans, milling around the stadium and watching in bars as the New York Rangers took on the Tampa Bay Lightning in the second game of the 2022 NHL Eastern Conference Final.

According to NYPD statistics, major crimes have surged by 27 per cent in the city in recent years. However New York remains one of the safest big cities in America, and police encounter less than a third of the crime experienced during the public safety crisis of the 1990s.

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