A police line search is underway on Phillips Avenue at West Wollongong after a teenager was stabbed in the chest at a unit complex overnight.
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The 19-year-old is fighting for his life after an altercation that began outside a public housing complex.
A bloody trail through the complex stairwell showed where the teen was pursued. The Mercury understands some residents came to his aid before paramedics arrived.
Residents told the Mercury they heard a commotion out the front of the complex about 9pm, after a car pulled up and two male passengers got out and approached two males and two females.
"I seen a car pull up from here then we heard it all," the resident said. "There was an all-in brawl. A neighbour was walking her dog but she ran back down here."
The man said he believes the knifeman made off on a pathway that runs the length of the complex, hidden behind its Colorbond side fence.
"A few of them ran down here," he said, motioning to the path. "They were laughing about it [the stabbing]."
"It [the path] is the escape route," he said. "A lot of poeple use it when they do something stupid."
The pathway leads to privately owned units, then a grass paddock beside some tennis courts.
Carloads of general duties officers swarmed the site about midday Tuesday in search of a discarded weapon.
Armed with picks and machetes, their search focussed on an overgrown dry creek bed thick with lantana, debris and an abandoned trolley, and on land neighbouring the path.
The resident told the Mercury he did not believe the injured man was a resident at the complex.
He was rushed to Wollongong Hospital and airlifted to St George Hospital about 1.30am Tuesday.
He remains at the hospital in a critical but stable condition, as at 1.50pm.
Multiple residents are assisting police with their inquiries.
Detectives from Wollongong Police District are investigating.
The incident came 10 days after a man was stabbed at Unanderra and a day after a man was stabbed at a unit block on Myuna Way at Mangerton.
In the Mangerton incident, officers from Wollongong Police District were already at the complex about 7pm Sunday when a woman alerted them to a fight at the back of the property.
Police found a 29-year-old man with stab wounds to his chest, thigh and forearm.
Paramedics tended to him before he was taken to Wollongong Hospital with a punctured lung.
A 22-year-old man was arrested and taken to Wollongong Police Station but was released, pending further inquiries.
Wollongong Police District detectives are investigating both matters. Contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 to provide information that could assist police.
Contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 to provide information that could assist police.