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Eugene

(61,595 posts)
Fri Jan 4, 2019, 04:25 PM Jan 2019

Dozens of tourists in Brazil robbed on trail to Rio's famous Christ the Redeemer statue

Source: Washington Post

Dozens of tourists in Brazil robbed on trail to Rio’s famous Christ the Redeemer statue

By Marina Lopes January 4 at 12:14 PM

SAO PAULO — Dozens of tourists hiking toward the famous Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro were held at gunpoint for up to two hours in a mass robbery that could mark an early test for anti-crime crackdowns promised by Brazil’s new president.

Police said Friday that at least three assailants carrying knives and a gun set up the ambush on the trail, which cuts through a dense forest that borders a slum on the outskirts of the city and has been the site of numerous muggings.

In total, more than 30 people were robbed Thursday — about half foreigners from Asia, Europe and elsewhere in South America — as the thieves took hostages and waited for more tourists to arrive.

They took cellphones, cameras, wedding rings and credit cards, police said. Nobody was hurt.

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Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/dozens-of-tourists-in-brazil-robbed-on-trail-to-rios-famous-christ-the-redeemer-statue/2019/01/04/c08685b8-1025-11e9-8f0c-6f878a26288a_story.html

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Source: The Rio Times

Tourists are Robbed at Gun Point on Rio’s Corcovado Trail

Three men approached victims who were going up to see the statue of Christ the Redeemer among them foreign tourists from Japan, Switzerland and Argentina.

By Lise Alves - January 4, 2019

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Three men robbed approximately forty tourists hiking the trail that connects Parque Lage and the Corcovado mountain in Zona Sul of Rio de Janeiro on Thursday morning.

“A man came at us with a knife and when we turned, behind us there was another, also with a knife. And he took our phone, wallet, cameras, everything,” Swiss tourists identified only as Patrick told online news outlet G1.

According to local newspaper O Globo, the three men approached victims who were going up to see the statue of Christ the Redeemer as well as others who were already returning from the monument towards Parque Lage, like the Swiss.

The newspaper also said some of the tourists were held as hostages for at least two hours while the men waited for new victims to pass through the trail.

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Read more: https://riotimesonline.com/brazil-news/rio-politics/tourists-are-robbed-at-gun-point-on-rios-corcovado-trail/
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