A French aid worker with the Red Cross in Afghanistan was stabbed in the throat by a prisoner during a visit to a jail to distribute winter clothes, police said Wednesday, adding the injury was not serious.
The ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross) staff member was visiting Maimana jail in the remote northern province of Faryab on Tuesday when he was attacked.
"A group of ICRC officials visited Maimana prison to assist them with some winter clothes," Mohammad Naim Andarabi, deputy police chief of Faryab, told AFP.
"As the French official was speaking to a group of prisoners, one attacked him with a sharp metal object and stabbed him on his throat.
"The victim was immediately taken to hospital because he was bleeding."
A doctor at Maimana city hospital said that he was treated for a two-centimetre cut to his throat before being released.
The ICRC confirmed the attack, saying the victim had been flown to Kabul for further medical checks and was then discharged.
"The authorities are doing an investigation to determine the circumstances and we are also looking at the reasons for such an incident," said ICRC spokesman Marek Resich.
ICRC staff make regular visits to prisons throughout Afghanistan to monitor detainees` conditions, as well as distributing blankets, clothes and hygiene items each year before winter sets in.
