Elie Wiesel, left, the Holocaust survivor, author and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, was attacked at a San Francisco hotel last week by an unknown assailant, the police said yesterday.

 

Sgt. Neville Gittens, a police spokesman, said Mr. Wiesel, 78, was attending a conference when a man approached him in an elevator and asked to interview him. After a brief discussion, the man dragged Mr. Wiesel off the elevator and tried to restrain him, but Mr. Wiesel screamed, and the attacker fled.

 

Mr. Wiesel was not injured. No arrests were made, though Sergeant Gittens said the police had a “person of interest” in the case.

 

The Associated Press reported that a Holocaust denier calling himself Eric Hunt had claimed credit on an anti-Semitic Web site for accosting Mr. Wiesel, but the police could not confirm whether he was the suspect.

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