An attacker stabbed a wildlife ranger at a Colorado state park outside Denver on Tuesday morning and ran away, setting off a manhunt and leading officials to evacuate the park, the authorities said.
The ranger, who was working at Staunton State Park at the time, was airlifted to an area hospital with serious injuries, said Kara Van Hoose, a spokeswoman for Colorado Parks and Wildlife.
The agency did not identify the ranger, who it said was expected to survive.
It was not immediately clear what had led to the attack, which occurred around 9:30 a.m. and prompted the authorities to close the park.
Investigators said that they were searching the area by ground and by air for the attacker, whom they described as a white man in his early 30s with brown hair, standing about six feet tall and weighing 200 pounds. He was wearing a gray shirt and blue jeans.
“Consider this person dangerous,” the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office said on social media.
The ranger who was stabbed was unarmed and is a seasonal employee, according to Colorado Parks and Wildlife, which said that those types of rangers can write citations or tickets for violations of park rules but cannot make arrests.
Staunton State Park, which is about 40 miles southwest of Denver, covers nearly 4,000 acres and includes 37 miles of trails. It has 25 campsites and 25 picnic sites. A visitors page for the park says that it offers “diverse landscapes, ranging from grassy meadows at 8,100 feet to granite cliffs over 10,000 feet.”
Neil Vigdor covers breaking news for The Times, with a focus on politics.
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