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Battery Park Ticket Seller Slashed in Fight With Rival Vendor, NYPD Says

By  Gwynne Hogan and Aidan Gardiner | July 1, 2015 7:02pm 

 A man was slashed in the head around 1 p.m. on the corner of Whitehall and Pearl Streets, police said.
A man was slashed in the head around 1 p.m. on the corner of Whitehall and Pearl Streets, police said.
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DNAinfo/Gwynne Hogan

FINANCIAL DISTRICT — A man was slashed on Wednesday afternoon during a fight between rival vendors who sell bus and boat tour tickets near Battery Park, police and witnesses said.

Emergency workers responded to the scene about 1 p.m. and transported one person in serious but stable condition to New York Presbyterian Hospital, fire and police officials said.

Multiple street merchants and people who work near the intersection of Pearl and Whitehall streets saw a group of people chasing another group from State Street south, then east along Pearl Street, then back again.

Witnesses and police said the people in the group were rival companies of ticket sellers who solicit tourists in the high-traffic area.

At some point during the chase, a man was slashed in the head, witnesses and police said.

On the southwest corner of Pearl and Whitehall, bystanders brought the victim a chair and helped him as he waited for an ambulance, witnesses said.

"He was slouched down,” Blendor Gashi, 20, who is a maintenance worker at a building on Whitehall Street. “[There was] a lot of blood, blood spattered on the wall."

Another vendor who sells souvenirs on the corner witnessed the aftermath of the altercation.

"[He had] blood all in front, blood all in back, blood everywhere," said Jason Reilly, 33.

Police are investigating the incident. No arrests had been made as of Wednesday afternoon, police said.