A section of Art Basel Miami Beach was transformed into a crime scene after a fight escalated to a stabbing at the show’s main event inside the Miami Beach Convention Center on Friday night, police said. 
 
 A woman pulled an X-Acto knife and stabbed another woman in the arms and neck, said Miami Beach police spokeswoman Det. Kathleen Prieto. 
 
 “The injuries are non life-threatening,” Prieto said. The victim was transported to Jackson Memorial Hospital; the assailant, whom police did not identify, was arrested at the scene. 
 
 Both women were patrons of the art show, not exhibitors. Some patrons thought the stabbing was a performance art presentation. Others believed the police tape cordoning off an area of the convention center was part of an art installation. 
 
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 The injuries are non life-threatening. Det. Kathleen Prieto, Miami Beach Police Department 
 
 The stabbing occurred in a corridor near an art installation entitled “The Swamp of Sagittarius,” created by Miami artist Naomi Fisher and partner Agatha Wara. 
 
 Fisher said she was at her exhibit when she heard a scuffle and later saw a woman being wheeled away by paramedics at about 5:30 p.m. 
 
 “A guy walked up to me and said, ‘I thought I saw a performance, and I thought it was fake blood, but it was real blood.’” 
 
 She said an artist named Rudy Perez showed her a photo that he snapped on his cellphone, showing a woman dressed in white with blood stains on her clothes. 
 
 Fisher said the stabbing took place in front of booth N29, where Freedman Fitzpatrick Gallery from Los Angeles was exhibiting. 
 
 Police cordoned an area near the Washington Avenue entrance to the convention center. It was in a section of the show called NOVA designed to promote young artists. 
 
 “It's horrible ... I'm so freaked out,” Fisher said. “I feel nauseous.” 
 
 Art gallery representatives who witnessed the incident declined to give their names but said they saw a woman with what appeared to be a pen in her neck. One gallerist said she heard a scream and ran over and saw a young woman lying on the floor bleeding from her neck. 
 
 It’s horrible ... I feel nauseous. Naomi Fisher, Miami artist 
 
 Sara Fitzmaurice, a spokeswoman for Art Basel, issued a written statement that read, in part, “The attack was an isolated incident that was immediately secured. The suspect was apprehended by police who were at the scene within seconds of the incident. ... Our thoughts are with the victim.” 
 
 Police and Art Basel officials announced this week that, after the terrorist attacks in Paris, they had beefed up security in and around the convention center, and at other events during the four-day fair that closes Sunday. 
 
 Inside the convention center, security guards and event organizers worked quickly to clean up the scene, and to keep public attention focused on the art and not the stabbing. One bystander said he asked a guard what happened, and was told that a very expensive statue had fallen on someone. 
 
 Once patrons learned what had occurred, though, their reactions ranged from shocked to bewildered. 
 
 Our thoughts are with the victim. Sara Fitzmaurice, Art Basel Miami Beach spokeswoman 
 
 Two Coconut Grove women sipping champagne walked up to the police tape. When told by a reporter about the stabbing, they expressed shock. 
 
 “It's a very strange place for something like this to happen,” said Amanda DeSeta. 
 
 “It makes me very nervous,” said Sune Smith. 
 
 Both women said their purses were searched at the entrance to the convention center show, but not thoroughly. 
 
 Gregg Hill, a sculptor visiting from New York, said he saw the victim being wheeled out on a gurney but never suspected she was the victim of a violent act. 
 
 “I thought a piece of art fell on her,” he said. “I never would have thought there would be a stabbing at Art Basel. … People didn't really know what had happened. It was calm and everyone was milling around and talking.” ||||| Disclaimer: The following contains images of a graphic nature and content that may not be suitable for younger or sensitive viewers. 
 
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 MIAMI BEACH (CBSMiami) — The victim of a brutal stabbing at an Art Basel exhibit on Miami Beach told police she did not know her attacker. 
 
 Siyuan Zhao, a 24-year-old student from New York, was immediately arrested following the incident which took place in front of dozens of art lovers at the Miami Beach Convention Center at an exhibit for artist Naomi Fisher. 
 
 Miami Beach Police said just before the attack, Zhao was reportedly following the victim around the art gallery, bumping into her several times intentionally. When the victim finally confronted Zhao, without provocation, Zhao pulled out an exacto knife and stabbed the woman in her arm and shoulder. 
 
 Witnesses initially thought the attack was part of a live art performance. 
 
 Hollywood artist and photographer Rudy Perez was standing nearby when a woman’s scream and the ensuing commotion alarmed him. 
 
 “We hear a scream and I thought it was part of the exhibit. Then I see police, I see someone on the floor,” said Perez. “And I’m like, ‘Is that real blood? Is that real police or part of the act?” 
 
 He quickly realized the bloody scene was not for show. 
 
 While in handcuffs, officers say Zhao spontaneously offered a glimpse of a motive, saying: “I had to kill her and two more” and “I had to watch her bleed.” 
 
 “She was just standing there calm. Almost smiling,” said Perez, while the suspect was being taken into police custody. 
 
 According to the arrest report, Zhao admitted to stabbing the woman in order to “clean” her. 
 
 The victim was rushed to Jackson Memorial’s Ryder Trauma Center. 
 
 Zhao was charged with attempted murder. 
 
 In an email to The Associated Press Friday, a spokesperson for Art Basel Miami said, “The attack was an isolated incident that was immediately secured. Our thoughts are with the victim.”
– A stabbing at a Miami art show Friday night sparked confusion for champagne-swilling patrons: Was it real or was it performance art? Sadly, the assault at Art Basel Miami Beach was all too real and left the female victim bloodied with knife wounds to the arm and neck, the Miami Herald reports. "A guy walked up to me and said, 'I thought I saw a performance, and I thought it was fake blood, but it was real blood,'" says Miami artist Naomi Fisher, whose art installation "The Swamp of Sagittarius" was in the same corridor. "It's horrible ... I'm so freaked out. I feel nauseous." Others thought police tape cordoning off the crime scene at the Miami Beach Convention Center was also part of an artist's work. Fisher says she heard a struggle break out nearby and saw the victim, unnamed in media reports, removed by paramedics at roughly 5:30pm. Police arrested 24-year-old New York student Siyuan Zhao at the scene, CBS Miami reports. According to police, she was intentionally bumping into the victim and following her around the gallery before attacking her with an X-Acto knife. When handcuffed, Zhao reportedly said that "I had to watch her bleed" and "I had to kill her and two more." Photographer and Hollywood artist Rudy Perez, who snapped a shot of the bloodied victim, says Zhao "was just standing there calm. Almost smiling." The wounded woman was transported to hospital and is expected to survive.