Cyclist recovering after attack that left knife embedded in his head

WARNING: This story contains graphic images.

A cyclist is recovering after an attack at a known hotspot that left him scrambling to seek medical help - with a knife lodged deep in his head.

Shaun Wayne was cycling to work at a restaurant on Monday at the Strand in the Western Cape when he was attacked and stabbed on Gordon’s Bay Drive.

Former world champion cyclist Wimpie van der Merwe wrote on Facebook on Tuesday that the man was attacked in the same spot that he was attacked last week.

"Yesterday afternoon, at exactly the same place where we were attacked last week on Gordon’s Bay Road, another person (Shaun Wayne, a waiter at a local restaurant) was almost fatally attacked on his bike! The police and policing are shining in their in absence."

A work acquaintance Herman Payne wrote: "Last night I heard about this when I went to pick up the staff and drop them, they told me how shocked they were when he came running past them to the doctor’s office at the OK [Foods]." 

He added on Tuesday night: “Shawn [sic] is out of surgery. Knife out, stitches and in a ward for observation. His mom says [the] doctor says so far they don’t see any permanent damage."

Payne confirmed to TimesLIVE that Wayne was operated on at Tygerberg Hospital in Bellville.

His mother Sandra verified that that he had undergone surgery, but declined to make any further comment, stating that she and the family requested privacy at this stage. - Additional reporting by Dan Meyer