by Marc Burleigh, February 15, 2010
RIO DE JANEIRO (AFP) - A 37-year-old Dutch tourist was in hospital in Rio de Janeiro Saturday after being shot twice by a mugger who attacked him and his wife during Carnival festivities, police told AFP.
"This is the worst crime we have had against a foreign tourist this year and we are worried about it," the head of the special tourist police unit handling the assault, Gilbert Stivanello, said.
The Dutchman, identified as Alexander Kors Johannes Vervoort, was shot in the stomach and arm during the assault late Friday. He remained in intensive care, though 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.
Stivenello corrected an initial Brazilian news report by the O Globo newspaper that said two muggers were involved, and which gave incomplete names for the victims.
The police chief said the attack was the most serious against a foreigner so far during Carnival.
"Usually, there are fewer assaults but more thefts," including pickpocketing, reported during the festivities, which began Friday and continue well into next week.
Stivanello said he did not yet have statistics on tourist crimes reported to his unit for the first two days of Carnival.
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.
He explained that two thugs had yanked away his digital camera he had been using. Minutes later, a larger group returned to also grab at knifepoint a friend's digital camera he was holding.
Sarah Fellows, 22, said she and a friend were seized by two men in a dark street as they were walking back to their lodging after a night in the same area, Lapa, a downtown area filled with bars and nightclubs.
"They cornered us. They made me give my handbag, which had my camera and 50 reais (30 dollars) in it," she said.
She said she pleaded with the muggers to leave her make-up, which they did.
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, which is to host the 2016 Olympic Games, has endemic street crime.
The state of Rio de Janeiro had 5,794 murders last year, a rise of 1.3 percent, while the number of muggings increased by two percent.
