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A Hoboken Volunteet Ambulance Corps EMT stabbed yesterday while responding to call.

(Journal file photo)

The Hoboken emergency medical technician who was stabbed while responding to a phony call for medical assistance at a public housing complex yesterday was apparently set up by someone who wanted to steal drugs from her, officials said.

The 26-year-old EMT and her co-workers said they responded to the building on Marshall Drive and took the elevator to the seventh floor, but when the elevator door opened, a man grabbed the victim and demanded drugs, police said.

According to the police report, the other EMTs who were with her stayed on the elevator and closed the door.

The victim told the assailant said she had no drugs, but he dragged her into a stairwell, stabbed her in the side and fled down the stairs, police said. The EMT was assisted by residents and an off-duty police officer who was at the scene taking his son to football practice, officials said.

She was then placed in her own ambulance and taken to the Jersey City Medical Center, with paramedics intercepting the ambulance halfway between Hoboken and the JCMC to begin treating her, hospital spokesman Mark Rabson said. She is expected to be released today.

Police went to the apartment the paramedics has been responding to and the resident said she was home alone and she had not called for medical assistance, a police report said.

The knife used in the attack was not recovered, police said, who are trying to trace the phone that was used to make the call for medical assistance. The EMT's attacker was described as being about 5-foot-8 with a thin build.

Police ask anyone with information on the stabbing to call (201) 420-2110.