A 61-year-old Manhattan man who was randomly pummelled by a brick-wielding madman in Hell’s Kitchen on Tuesday night says he never saw the attack coming.

The victim was walking to the gym about 6:30 p.m., and had just reached the corner of West 43rd Street and Ninth Avenue when a red brick struck him in the face out of nowhere.

“I was walking west,” toward the Manhattan Plaza Health Club at 10th Avenue and 42nd Street, recalls the man, a retired IT worker who asked his name not be used.

“People were walking east. And one of the guys, apparently, was carrying a brick and when he passed me, he just hit me in the face, without saying anything, shouting, anything.”

The victim was knocked to the ground as his assailant continued to smack him with the brick all over his body.

A homeless man, identified as Laru Curls, 42, was apprehended near the scene.

“I fell down. I don’t remember how I went down, but the next thing, he was basically above me and he kept pounding me with the brick,” the victim said.

“First he hit me here,” he said, pointing to his left cheek.

“Then I was on the ground, and he was above me so I was trying to protect my head,” he added. “So he was hitting me with the brick on my hands and my body and everywhere.”

Still, the attacker remained silent.

“I don’t know how it happened or why,” he said. “He is a nut case or maybe on drugs. I don’t know.”

The victim’s only thought was to protect his head: “If he hits my head, I’m gone,” he recalled thinking. “Or I could have ended up with brain damage.”

The madman then walked off, again without saying a word. But a passersby had called 911, and police rushed to the scene, arresting Curls nearby.

“I’ve become very scared,” the victim said. “This morning, I was actually walking to the drug store to get antibiotics, and I look at every person that passes me… You don’t know what will happen next,” he said.

“The mental thing is what the violence does to you.”