PEMBA, Tanzania (6 July 2004) -- A British teenager shot during an attack by pirates in Tanzania spoke of her ordeal yesterday while other members of the group criticised the company that had organised the trip. Grace Forster, aged 18, from Whittlesey in Cambridgeshire, had travelled to the island of Pemba to carry out underwater conservation work when her 25-strong group was attacked by pirates armed with guns and machetes last Friday night. A bullet hit her on her left side, narrowly missing her spine, before exiting her body and lodging in the leg of Robert Scott, 20, from Bristol, who was sitting next to her. "I heard a gunshot and felt an extreme amount of pain in my back - the worst pain I have ever felt," she said. "A split second later I felt it again when it went out of me and immediately Rob jumped up when it hit him." Ms Forster, who was discharged from hospital in the capital, Dar es Salam, yesterday, said the group was determined to get a refund from Frontier, the company that organised the trip. "We are now concerned that we are not going to get our money back. We all paid £1,500 to Frontier for the trip and we want to know how Frontier will reimburse us," she said. Company representatives held talks with the travellers last night. | | Grace Forster Serle Jenkins, a 36-year-old from South Wales who was part of the group, said they were unhappy about the way they had been treated by Frontier. "Other than the support we got from the staff who were there during the attack, the Frontier management have been useless," he said. "The whole party has had an appalling experience. We've been given very little food and no official access to telephones." In a statement yesterday the company said most of the volunteers wanted to take part in a new expedition, and it was satisfied with its security provisions. The company added: "It was an unforeseeable incident." Police in Tanzania are holding two suspects in connection with the attack. SOURCE - Guardian |
