A MAN who shoved a lit cigarette into the eye of an 18-month-old baby boy in an apparently random attack remains on the run three days after the attack.
The beggar, who over the past month has been seen approaching people for change and cigarettes in the streets of Dulwich Hill, in Sydney's inner west, struck up a brief conversation with a 51-year-old woman, who was with two children, police said yesterday.
Without any apparent warning, it is claimed he then removed a lit cigarette from his mouth and put it in the toddler's eye.
The man, thought to be in his 40s, quickly fled from the scene.
The child was treated at Sydney Children's Hospital and is believed not to have suffered any long-term damage to his sight.
Detective Inspector Jodi Radmore said while the man remained at large, police did not believe he posed a danger to other children in the area.
"Our investigations have revealed this was an isolated incident, and there is no suggestion that there will be similar assaults on other young children," Inspector Radmore said.
The senseless attack occurred at 11.30am on Friday, and the man has not been seen since.
However, police are hopeful that footage taken by security cameras outside a nearby hotel may have captured images of the attacker as he ran away.
The manager of the hotel on Marrickville Road, where the attack took place, told The Daily Telegraph that he had seen a man who fitted the offender's description loitering in the area several times during the past few weeks.
He said he had recently seen the man approaching people in the streets, asking for money and cigarettes and picking up old butts off the ground.
The man is described as being white, 40 to 50 years of age, 175cm tall, with a thin build and blond shoulder-length hair and sandy-coloured facial hair.
Police said he walked with a limp and had a blue marking -- possibly a tattoo -- on his left wrist
