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Man Gets 15 Stitches From Hawk Attack At Tufts

SOMERVILLE (CBS) - Michael Doherty was walking by a Tufts University classroom building on Dearborn Road in Somerville when all of a sudden, out of nowhere, he was attacked.

WBZ-TV's Jim Smith reports.

Doherty had no idea what had hit him. He wound up with several stitches and a gash that just missed his eye.

Turns out, his attackers were two hawks.

doherty-eye
Michael Doherty shows off his wounds from a hawk attack at Tufts University in Somerville, May 7, 2011. (Credit: Michael Doherty)

The birds had been perched in two trees, not far from a nest they had built on a fire escape.

Tufts police think they were protecting their babies in that nest.

Doherty needed 15 stitches to close the cuts next to his eye and behind his ear.

Tufts has since put up a fence and a warning sign.

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