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This has just been posted on facebook and whilst I can not confirm the details it does us no harm to be reminded of what may behappening out there
Hi to everyone, This just happened to someone who works for the EU. Please be careful when getting a taxi.
Yesterday (Friday 9) at 19:30 p.m. I was attacked, beaten and robbed by a taxi driver I drove with from Maadi, where I live. I was on my way to meet my friend in Zamalek. He was taking me via a different route, darker and less populated, with no sidewalk and construction buildings on both sides. My guards were down at first because I have taken that detour road to Zamalek before in order to avoid traffic on the Corniche. But by the time I realized that something was wrong, we were speeding on the highway where it was impossible to jump out of the car. I asked him to stop the car. He made a U-turn and pulled over to a side that had no pavement and no people or buildings, just heaps of sand for construction. The highway was not lit at all, the only light was coming from the headlights of cars. He stopped the car, locked the doors and flipped out a knife asking me to take my clothes off. At first I thought that he wanted to steal my jacket, so I took it off and gave it to him and asked him if I could leave. Then he pointed the knife to me again and asked me to take the rest of my clothes off. At this point I made another attempt to leave, but he grabbed me by my hair and pulled me back inside the car putting the knife close to my face. I told him, "please take all my money", he said "i don't want your money". He held me against the back seat and put down the driver's seat to pin me down. The driver's seat was pressing me on my chest thus impeding my moves. He then head-butted me and punched me in the face a number of times. My vision started to blur, but I kept fighting him back, hitting him on the head with my phone and opening the door on my side. That door was facing the highway so I tried sticking out my hand and screaming for help in an attempt to grab attention of the passing cars, they sped by. Each time I managed to open the door, he grabbed me by the hair and dragged me back inside the car locking the door behind me. This went on for several minutes, I kept asking him to take the money, telling him that there was a lot of money in my wallet and begging him not to touch me. At some point when I managed to open the door again and for the last time, he said OK, give me the money. He took my handbag with everything in it and my phone too and then unlocked one of the doors to let me out. I got out of the car, still conscious and he did not manage to touch or hit me anywhere other than my face. I stood on the road for about 5 minutes until I found another taxi to take me home."
"I got home about 9:00 p.m. and we went to the hospital straight away. I was in the hospital for most of the night yesterday getting stitches and filing police reports. I have a couple of deep cuts above my eyebrow and my face is swollen, but there is no internal damage, the x-rays and CT-scans came out normal. I am shaken, but safe now back home with my family. I don't have any intentions to spread panic, but dear friends, and especially women, please take some precautions. I am always the one trying to tell people to calm down and that I feel safe in Cairo and I did, until this happened to me yesterday. The fact that this happened in a white taxi and not some random car and the fact that I was doing something that I do all the time here in Cairo, take taxis everywhere without even thinking that something like this could have happened. I was not subjecting myself to any risk. I was doing something very normal, something that everybody does here, take a taxi and not even late at night, everything happened between 7 and 8 p.m. and it was on a highway full of cars that did not see me opening the door and crying out for help. Anyway, please just be careful
Hi to everyone, This just happened to someone who works for the EU. Please be careful when getting a taxi.
Yesterday (Friday 9) at 19:30 p.m. I was attacked, beaten and robbed by a taxi driver I drove with from Maadi, where I live. I was on my way to meet my friend in Zamalek. He was taking me via a different route, darker and less populated, with no sidewalk and construction buildings on both sides. My guards were down at first because I have taken that detour road to Zamalek before in order to avoid traffic on the Corniche. But by the time I realized that something was wrong, we were speeding on the highway where it was impossible to jump out of the car. I asked him to stop the car. He made a U-turn and pulled over to a side that had no pavement and no people or buildings, just heaps of sand for construction. The highway was not lit at all, the only light was coming from the headlights of cars. He stopped the car, locked the doors and flipped out a knife asking me to take my clothes off. At first I thought that he wanted to steal my jacket, so I took it off and gave it to him and asked him if I could leave. Then he pointed the knife to me again and asked me to take the rest of my clothes off. At this point I made another attempt to leave, but he grabbed me by my hair and pulled me back inside the car putting the knife close to my face. I told him, "please take all my money", he said "i don't want your money". He held me against the back seat and put down the driver's seat to pin me down. The driver's seat was pressing me on my chest thus impeding my moves. He then head-butted me and punched me in the face a number of times. My vision started to blur, but I kept fighting him back, hitting him on the head with my phone and opening the door on my side. That door was facing the highway so I tried sticking out my hand and screaming for help in an attempt to grab attention of the passing cars, they sped by. Each time I managed to open the door, he grabbed me by the hair and dragged me back inside the car locking the door behind me. This went on for several minutes, I kept asking him to take the money, telling him that there was a lot of money in my wallet and begging him not to touch me. At some point when I managed to open the door again and for the last time, he said OK, give me the money. He took my handbag with everything in it and my phone too and then unlocked one of the doors to let me out. I got out of the car, still conscious and he did not manage to touch or hit me anywhere other than my face. I stood on the road for about 5 minutes until I found another taxi to take me home."
"I got home about 9:00 p.m. and we went to the hospital straight away. I was in the hospital for most of the night yesterday getting stitches and filing police reports. I have a couple of deep cuts above my eyebrow and my face is swollen, but there is no internal damage, the x-rays and CT-scans came out normal. I am shaken, but safe now back home with my family. I don't have any intentions to spread panic, but dear friends, and especially women, please take some precautions. I am always the one trying to tell people to calm down and that I feel safe in Cairo and I did, until this happened to me yesterday. The fact that this happened in a white taxi and not some random car and the fact that I was doing something that I do all the time here in Cairo, take taxis everywhere without even thinking that something like this could have happened. I was not subjecting myself to any risk. I was doing something very normal, something that everybody does here, take a taxi and not even late at night, everything happened between 7 and 8 p.m. and it was on a highway full of cars that did not see me opening the door and crying out for help. Anyway, please just be careful
