Bike-riding snatchers targeting foreign tourists in Goa

There is no let up in crimes against foreigners in Goa with a British national complaining about a purse being snatched by a biker gang at the popular beach village of Calangute, 20 km from here.

Trevor John Bennet told the Calangute police Tuesday night that his wife's handbag containing a gold ring, a mobile phone and Rs.25,000 in cash was snatched by two people riding a bike last night.

This is not the first time that foreign tourists have been targeted in coastal Goa.

Only last month, a Russian woman tourist complained of a similar snatching by robbers astride a two-wheeler.

Over the past few months, the Goa Police have received more than a dozen complaints of similar robberies, raising questions whether the state is a safe destination for foreign tourists, especially women.

An advisory issued by the British government has cautioned women tourists to be on their guard against theft and purse snatchers in specific areas in the north Goa coastal belt.

Goa's beaches which annually attract three million tourists, including half a million foreigners, gained infamy in the global media following the 2008 murder of a British teenager in Anjuna amidst other reports of the beach state being called a narco-tourism destination.