Residents of a Manoa neighborhood with views of the ocean in the distance got a close-up view of the aftermath of a stabbing yesterday afternoon.

Police say a 54-year-old taxi driver was robbed and attacked at the end of a quiet cul-de-sac in an upscale neighborhood.

Two suspects were still at large last night despite a search of the neighborhood using a police dog.

The victim, a driver for TheCab, was taken to the Queen's Medical Center. Bryan Cheplic, spokesman for the Honolulu Emergency Services Department, said the victim was taken in critical condition with multiple stab wounds and was later upgraded to serious.

Police said the taxi driver picked up the two men, one in his 40s and another in his mid-20s, in Makiki. When he arrived at a house at 3291 Pinaoula St., one of the robbers asked him for change. As the driver checked, he was attacked and stabbed in the right side of his neck. The men took an undisclosed amount of money and ran in the makai direction, police said.

A neighbor heard the man and called for help at about 1:20 p.m., said Honolulu police Lt. Gerrit Kurihara.

But Kurihara said no one in the neighborhood apparently saw the crime.

Police found on the street what might be the weapon: an 8-inch kitchen knife.

The cab, a silver Acura sport utility vehicle, sat with its left-side doors open at the top of a steep street in the back of Manoa Valley.

The robbery baffled some residents, who described the neighborhood as quiet and wondered why someone would rob a taxi at the end of a dead-end street.

“;What in the world am I walking into,”; said Alfred Jones, who was walking his pitbull up to a house to drop off a new rental contract.

One man, a lanky resident who declined to give his name, said he was home at the time and heard the taxi honking, but wasn't alarmed. When he heard police sirens, he saw the man slumped on the ground next to his taxi and wearing a shirt covered in blood.

Residents on streets below were walking dogs and doing yardwork.

Sue, a resident who declined to give her last name, arrived after firefighters and heard the man telling firefighters that his attackers also hit him on the head.

“;There was blood everywhere,”; she said. “;(His shirt) was completely soaked in blood.”;