By PAULO SILVESTRE [email protected]
A group of Irish women were robbed at gunpoint by two men during the early hours of Monday while they were relaxing by the pool at their holiday villa in the Sesmarias area near Albufeira.
A spokesman from the GNR police told the Algarve Resident: “We can confirm that a group of six or seven Irish women were assaulted while they were at their holiday villa.
“Money, mobile phones and iPods were stolen during the attack and the investigation has now been passed on to the PJ police.”
According to Portuguese daily newspaper Correio da Manhã (CM), the women were by the pool of the villa at around 1am when two masked and armed men broke into the property.
CM reported that the women, who are all said to be aged around 30, gave up their possessions, including “jewellery, money, computers and credit cards”, without offering any resistance, after which the men fled the scene in a BMW, where two other men were waiting.
It is understood that the incident led to the women requesting that the villa management company arrange private security 24 hours a day.
“They decided to stay in the villa for the rest of their holidays but only if we arranged for private security,” a spokesman for the villa management company told CM. A PJ police spokesman told the Algarve Resident that “further statements will be made when we have more details about the case”.
A spokesman from the Irish Embassy told the Algarve Resident: “We can confirm that we are offering assistance to the Irish citizens in Albufeira but are unable to reveal any further details regarding the case.”
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