A Beja baker lies seriously injured in hospital in Lisbon after a barbaric beating in her own bakery.
Margarida Carocinho, 54, was finishing her work for the evening when three masked men burst into the bakery in Nossa Senhora das Neves, near Beja, tied her up and started beating her about the head.
At least one attacker was wearing a knuckle duster, which he used repeatedly, reported Correio da Manhã.
Margarida suffered serious head injuries. At the door, the blood stains were visible. The woman’s husband, Afonso, was locking up when the attack happened, and by the time he got to his wife, she had already been tied up and was being savagely beaten.
He told the newspaper he was punched twice as the attackers demanded money.
It was at this point that an elderly neighbour, alerted by the commotion, arrived on the scene.
José Manuel Figueira, 70, was also attacked, but his unexpected intervention was enough to send the attackers off into the night.
Afonso, 78, told the newspaper: “If our neighbour hadn’t come to our aid, I don’t know what would have become of us.”
Beja GNR have passed the case on to the Polícia Judiciária in Faro.
