Man severely beaten near Independence Hall

A 2010 Temple University graduate was hospitalized in extremely critical condition after being beaten by three men near Independence Hall early Saturday morning, Philadelphia police said.

The attack occurred about 2:30 a.m. as the 23-year-old man and two female friends were returning from the Lucy's Hat Shop bar blocks away on Market Street, investigators said.

It was not clear exactly what sparked the incident.

The victim apparently yelled at a taxi that failed to stop as the group hailed it in the 400 block of Chestnut Street, investigators said. His shouts for some reason enraged four men in a car that came up after the cab.

Three of the men got out of their car - a maroon, four-door Mazda 626 of 2000-2003 vintage, according to police - and proceeded to chase the victim to the front of the historic Second Bank of the United States and beat him, smacking his head against a granite wall.

The assailants were described by witnesses as being of either Middle Eastern or Indian descent, said police Lt. Raymond Evers. They fled as National Park Service rangers who heard the women's cries approached.

Investigators did not release the victim's name. They said he is a white male, a city resident, who had recently begun working at an insurance firm.

He was taken to Jefferson University Hospital, where doctors were said to be assessing his brain function.