Dream holiday ruined by attack on remote road, but perpetrators caught.
'All five attackers were drunk, all confessed to robbing the Chinese tourists'. Picture: The SIberian Times
The three Chinese were biking around Siberia, dreaming of reaching Moscow. As they were riding through Olovyanninskiy district of Trans-Baikal region, the group were attacked by muggers.
The drunk assailants, in a Toyota car, robed them of money, bank cards and visas some 8km from Yasnaya train station along Chita-Zabaikalsk federal highway.
They tried to steal one of the bikes, but it didn't fit into the vehicle.
'Five young men came out. They beat the 55 years old Chinese man and openly took his bag away with 1,500 yuan, two mobile phones and a Russian entry visa. Two other tourists were forced to handover their mobile phones.
'As the Chinese tourists said, the attackers even tried to steal one of their bikes, but it didn't fit into the car's boot, so they dropped it and drove away', said a statement from the local police. The tourists came to the police. The attackers description and the car's number plate were shared with the traffic police, who soon noticed that same car speeding along towards Chita.
'The car's driver ignored traffic police's command to stop and increased his speed to make sure he was unreachable for police.
'The traffic police car was tailing the attackers for several kilometres, ordering them to stop the car and come out.
'Finally the Toyota's driver lost control of the car and it slid into the ditch. Five men jumped out and went running into the fields. Finally, the traffic police caught them. All five were drunk, all confessed to robbing the Chinese tourists. Four were sentenced earlier for similar crimes', said a statement from local police.
The attacked tourists got all their belongings back.
Police helped them to get a night's stay in the local village, and assisted on buying them train tickets to Irkutsk.
The tourists plan to continue their bike journey after Irkutsk.
Archeologists discovered a new stone bracelet, two sharp pins, a marble ring and fox tooth pendants.