A 37-year-old Dutch tourist was in hospital in Rio de Janeiro yesterday after being shot twice by a mugger who attacked him and his wife after the city’s fabled Carnival festivities got under way, police said.
“This is the worst crime we have had against a foreign tourist this year and we are worried about it,” said Gilbert Stivanello, the head of the special tourist police unit handling the assault.
The Dutchman, identified as Alexander Kors Johannes Vervoort, was shot in the stomach and arm during the assault late on Friday. He remained in intensive care, but was conscious.
The crime occurred as Vervoort and his wife, Ella Vervoort Ferwerda, were walking alone to the summit of a hill where Rio’s landmark giant Christ the Redeemer statue is located. The popular tourist spot attracts 1.8 million visitors a year.
The wife, also 37, was beaten about the head with a pistol but was not badly hurt.
The single mugger, described as a very young and small man, ran from the scene, leaving behind the camera, wallet, backpack and handbag he had been trying to steal.
Police were hunting him.
The police chief said the man also risked being murdered by the drug gang which runs the slum where he lives, near the Christ statue, for bringing officers into their lawless neighborhood.
A dozen other tourists, mostly young British backpackers, were at the reception of the tourist police office when AFP visited. All were there to file reports that they, too, had been mugged, though none had been hurt.
“I was mugged twice the same night,” said one, Ed Grissell, 18.
Brazilian officials warn victims of assaults not to put up any resistance or speak back during assaults because many assailants are armed and have no hesitation in using their weapons.
Rio’s four-day Carnival began on Saturday with a slew of celebrities in town to watch the main event, which this year is dominated by a row over a seven-year-old girl joining the ranks of the sexy adult samba queens.
Singer Madonna, Australian actor Hugh Jackman and famous-for-being-famous Paris Hilton were all congregating in the seaside “Marvelous City” which was experiencing its steamiest heat wave in 50 years.
Temperatures were soaring above 40˚C.
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