'Dirty' needle used to stab stranger in Downtown Vancouver: police

A woman is in custody following the stabbing of a stranger with a needle, Vancouver police say.

A woman is in custody following the stabbing of a stranger with a needle, Vancouver police say.

It was reported that the victim was stabbed with a hypodermic needle by someone she did not know while leaving a coffee shop in the city's downtown core.

The 23-year-old woman was stabbed as she left the shop near Main and East Pender streets Wednesday afternoon, police said in a news release the next day.

Officers said they believe the woman may have been followed out of the café, then confronted by the suspect "who then stabbed her (in the leg) with the dirty needle," Vancouver Police Sgt. Steve Addison said Thursday of the incident in Chinatown.

"All signs point to this being a random and unprovoked assault on a victim who did nothing wrong."

Addison said investigators don't know what substance was in the syringe, and therefore aren't sure whether there will be any long-term health impacts as a result.

The victim, who called police immediately, was taken to hospital.