BOSTON— A woman was battered in broad daylight Friday on a South End block once famed for its brownstones and brunch spots — now reduced to addicts slumped in wheelchairs, needles on sidewalks, and a neighborhood living in fear.

The attack unfolded on West Canton Street just after noon, when a maniac suddenly lunged at a woman strolling down the block, raining blows to her head and face in a shocking outburst of daylight violence.

The victim managed to escape and is recovering, but the violence marked a breaking point — proof that the neighborhood’s slow decline has now spiraled into chaos.

It was the neighborhood watchdog account southendsos that first sounded the alarm, posting photos of Boston police cuffing the attacker on the sidewalk as stunned neighbors looked on. He was taken to the station for identification and charges, but in a twist that infuriated locals, the attacker was swiftly released back onto the very streets he had terrorized just hours earlier.

For decades, the South End was one of Boston’s crown jewels — chic brownstones, trendy cafés, boutique shops, and the kind of neighborhood young families and professionals fought to move into. Those days are slipping away fast.

Crime and addiction, once thought confined to the troubled Mass and Cass corridor, have spilled into the South End’s tree-lined streets. Sidewalks littered with needles, addicts slumped in doorways, and random acts of violence like Friday’s broad daylight assault have left the neighborhood on edge.

Mayor Michelle Wu, already under fire for her handling of Boston’s crime and addiction crisis, now finds the South End — once her city’s showcase neighborhood — transformed into a cautionary tale of neglect and fear.

The victim of Friday’s assault is safe — but the message for the city is clear. A neighborhood once seen as Boston’s safest, chicest address is now living in fear, with many wondering how much further it will fall before City Hall steps in.