A group of 55 passengers aboard a cruise ship tour of St. Lucia were robbed at gunpoint while on a bus trip to the Botanical Gardens Friday.
The passengers were aboard the Eclipse, a vessel part of Celebrity Cruises. They traveled to Soufrière to visit the gardens, where they were robbed by three masked gunmen.
One injury has been reported, but the passengers were visibly shaken, St. Lucia Tourism Minister Lorne Theophilus told The Independent.
They were also out some jewelry and money, which the bandits managed to pilfer.
Two crew members were among those robbed while on the bus.
One Eclipse passenger posted on the Cruise Critic forum that while ported in St. Lucia, "one of the ship tours was robbed at gun point by three masked gunmen. We were not on the tour, but friends were. They said one woman fell and broke her leg; no one else was injured, all their money and jewelry were taken."
A spokesperson for Celebrity Cruises maintained that no injuries had been sustained in Friday's incident.
Passengers are worried because this robbery follows a few heavily-covered incidents where British tourists ran into trouble in the Caribbean, including a couple who got shot and a man who was stabbed in Bridgetown, Barbados while returning to their cruise ship during the day. All survived the wounds.
Meanwhile, spokespeople from Celebrity Cruises and Theophilus' office have been painstakingly working assure travelers it's still OK to vacation in the area.
Another forum participant wrote that to make change and lower crime rates, island authorities must "wake up and crack down on crime."
According to the Telegraph, around 70,000 Brits visit St. Lucia every year, whether by cruise ship or plane. They grow more nervous at the prospect of unsafe conditions; their Foreign Office has alerted travelers of heightened "petty crime, including thefts."
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
