A man used a machete to stab a woman in San Francisco’s Mission District Thursday before ripping out her lip ring and fleeing, police said.

He approached the 25-year-old from behind at the northwest corner of 20th and Harrison streets at about 6 a.m., said Sgt. Eric O’Neal, a police spokesman. The man said something to the victim in Spanish, which she didn’t understand, and then used the machete to stab her in the leg.

He then yanked her lip ring out of her lip, jumped into a four-door sedan and fled the scene, police said.

The woman was treated at San Francisco General Hospital for non-life threatening injuries. No arrest has been made, but police are searching for the culprit. Carrying or concealing a blade larger than 2 1/2 inches in public is illegal in San Francisco, O’Neal said.