World Cup 2010: Three Foreign Journalists Robbed At Gunpoint In South Africa, Korean Man Strangled
Luckily no one got hurt.
By Luis Mira
Jun 9, 2010 6:00:00 AM
Two journalists from Portugal and one from Spain were last night victims to armed robbery in South Africa.
The three reporters, from Expresso, Global Noticias and Marca, were sleeping in their hotel located 15 km away from Magaliesburg when the robbers broke into their rooms at around 0400 BST.
They were robbed of laptops, passports, cameras, World Cup credentials and cellphones, but none of them were assaulted.
The trio are part of a group of 20 reporters staying at hotel complex Nutbush following the every move of the Portuguese national squad.
The fact that the hotel complex is isolated helped the gang, who jumped a fence to get inside, fleeing the scene after the robbery.
Antonio Simoes, one of the three reporters, told Lusa: "It was scary, it was two or three minutes tops, but it looked like hours. In the end, when they covered me and put a gun to my chest a second time, I thought: 'I'm dead'"
"When they left, they told me to remain silent and keep sleeping with the gun still pointed at me. I stayed a hour and a half inside the room waiting for daylight to get out.
"It is surreal putting us here, in a farm with no room phones or security. Where we have passed, we see high, electrified walls and security. It is unthinkable that they put us here."
Meanwhile, it is reported that South African police have arrested one of the suspects of the crime, after he was found through the signal of one of the stolen cellphones.
The incident will certainly increase security fears in South Africa just two days prior to the World Cup's big kick-off.
On June 2, a member of the SBS broadcasting crew was robbed at the restroom of a grocery store in Johanesburg, when three robbers broke in and strangled the man to steal his belongings while he was passed out.
Last Sunday, a reporter from a South Korean daily newspaper was reportedly robbed in the streets of Durban
