A man has reportedly sustained facial injuries after being attacked with a metal object outside a regional shopping centre. 

The incident happened at around 3.30pm on Thursday at the Tweed City centre on Minjungbal Drive in northern NSW. 

A NSW Ambulance spokesperson told the Gold Coast Bulletin the man, aged 25, had been rushed to Gold Coast University Hospital in a stable condition.

Multiple ambulance and police crews have attended the scene. 

Police sources said a building tool was used in the incident that witnesses described as being like an axe or machete. 

The alleged weapon has been seized by police for forensic testing. 

Witnesses told Channel Nine the attacker entered a business in the centre yelling at the man about cigarettes before launching into the attack and fleeing from the scene.

A police spokesperson said officers attended the scene  ‘following reports of an altercation’.

Officers were ‘told several people were involved in an altercation’.

 Police have launched a manhunt to find the attacker.

Anyone with information or footage of the incident is urged to contact police. 

Shoppers who witnessed the incident expressed their shock and horror on social media, with one writing ‘there was blood everywhere’.

‘Wow just saw the guy … blood everywhere. Was wondering what had happened. Pretty scary stuff,’ Jacqueline Garbett wrote.

Allison Sultana said her son’s mate tried to give first aid to the hurt man, saying the attack occurred outside the Woolworths store.

Shoppers began ‘piling out of the centre’ as news of the attack spread, wrote Sara Georgi who also stated police arrived ‘quickly’ to the scene.

More to come 

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