TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums Africa Tourists attacked in Kenya's Massai Mara park

Just received on yahoo news..thought I would pass it along..

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Five men armed with guns and machetes ambushed and robbed nine tourists returning from an evening game drive in Kenya's world famous Maasai Mara game reserve, police said on Tuesday.

One of them was injured with a machete cut.

The tourists -- from the United States, South Africa and Japan -- were returning to their resorts at the park in southwestern Kenya when they were attacked on Monday evening.

"They said their vehicle was ambushed from a game drive ... by five gunmen," Daniel Muleli, a chief inspector at the Tourist Police Unit, told Reuters.

The assailants took cameras and money from the tourists and their drivers. "One of the tourists was cut on his thumb with a simi (machete)," Muleli added.

Kenya Tourism Board spokeswoman Ann Kanini said the tourists comprised two Americans, a South African couple and five Japanese. She said the Japanese man struck by the machete had been flown to hospital in Nairobi.

Rift Valley Provincial Police Officer Joseph Kitony said police and wildlife rangers were trying to track the attackers.

Kenya's tourism sector, which took a dive after al Qaeda-blamed attacks in 1998 and 2002, is a mainstay of the east Africa nation's economy.

Denise--ah, that's terrible. Africa is such a beautiful destination. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cry.gif" alt="" />