AROUND SIX ASSAILANTS sprayed teargas on Chinese tourists outside a hotel near Paris’s Charles de Gaulle airport and made off with their luggage.
Two tourists and an interpreter were injured and taken to hospital.
The attack occurred around 8am French time as the tourists were loading their luggage onto a tour bus.
“Several bags and personal effects were taken,” a police official said, adding that the thieves fled the scene and “several passengers were in shock”.
Rescue workers said there were 27 Chinese tourists on the tour run.
Increase in Chinese tourists
China has the world’s second-largest economy, and its burgeoning and increasingly solvent middle class are travelling abroad in numbers greater than ever before.
But in many countries, particularly France, their reputation for carrying large amounts of cash has made them a target for thieves.
French authorities tightened security around Chinese tourist groups in 2013 after Beijing expressed concern about the increasing number of incidents.
In September last year, a Chinese tourist guide was robbed of €25,000 in cash and his new Rolex watch after he had prevented two of his group from being robbed themselves outside a hotel in a Paris suburb.
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