S. Korean tourists in Paris robbed amid suburb unrest

A group of South Korean tourists in Paris were robbed of their train tickets and one passport in what appeared to be a case linked to the recent unrest over alleged police brutality, officials said Sunday.

Some 40 Korean tourists were on a bus to their hotel around 9 p.m. Saturday (local time) when three or four black men boarded the bus and fled with the tourists' Eurostar tickets and the passport of the group's Korean tour guide, according to officials at the South Korean Embassy in Paris.

The men shouted and brandished what appeared to be glass bottles and struck some of the tourists on their heads. The group included children and senior citizens.

An official at the embassy urged caution in the suburbs north of Paris where the hotel is located, citing safety concerns. More than 2,000 protesters gathered in the nearby suburb of Bobigny the same day to express support for a 22-year-old black man who was alleged raped and subjected to unnecessary violence by police officers during his arrest on Feb. 2.

Some of the protesters threw stones at police and set cars ablaze.

"We need to look further into whether these protests in the suburbs of Paris and this incident are directly linked," said an embassy official.  (Yonhap)