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Masked men armed with tear gas robbed 19 tourists Saturday morning as the tourists waited outside their hotel near an airport north of Paris.
A group of four Americans was among the tourists robbed by several hooded men outside the Novotel Hotel at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport, according to French news outlet BFMTV.
The robbers, dressed in all black clothing, pulled up in several cars as the 19 tourists were waiting for a shuttle bus to arrive.
The thieves jumped out of their cars and neutralized the tourists with tear gas before robbing them of their personal belongings, according to reports.
One tourist was left with hand injuries after trying to fight the assailants off.
France’s gendarmerie military police are currently mounting a manhunt to find the robbers, who were still on the run as of Monday morning.
The attack is the latest in a long string of high-profile robberies in the hotels close to the Charles de Gaulle and Le Bourget airports in France.
In August last year, a group of Chinese tourists was targeted by six robbers armed with tear gas in a remarkably similar fashion to the attack Saturday.
The Chinese tourists were sprayed with tear gas by the thieves as they loaded their luggage onto a bus outside their hotel. Two tourists and an interpreter were taken to the hospital after suffering slight injuries in the attack.
In March this year, two Americans were robbed by a pair of men as they returned to their car underneath the Place Vendôme, a hub for luxury jewelers in Paris.
The Americans were stripped of their diamonds and other jewels by the robbers.
The jewelry robbery came just two months after reality television star Kim Kardashian was robbed of over $11 million worth of jewels at a private residence in Paris.
The Kardashian robbery was considered by many to be a blow to the global image of Paris.
Former French center-right presidential candidate Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet said the robbery highlighted “the general emergency around security” in Paris.
“The powers that be and the City Hall are not reactive enough,” she said.
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