A group of ten tourists from Omsk was held up and fired upon in the mountains of the Republic of Tuva, Itar-Tass learned on Sunday. The head of the group, Yuri Ryzhakov, is a lecturer for the Omsk Regional Center of Creative Development and Humanitarian Education, and gave his account to the paper. Members of the team of the regional tourist club, comprised of seven men and three women, were attacked twice by armed local residents and could not complete their trip. The tourists returned home on Sunday.
According to the team chief, Yuri Ryzhakov, the tourists noticed they were being shadowed by local residents on horseback when they put up tents in the upper reaches of the Balyktyg-Khem River, located in the Kaa-Khemsk district of the Republic. The horsemen held them up on the first night of their trip and they seized food, equipment, rucksacks with a repair kit, and Alpine ropes.
When the tourists continued their trip after the robbery, the local residents continued to victimize them. Shots were fired from bushes on the second night, forcing the Omsk tourists to put out the campfire and to defend themselves with boat oars. It was sheer luck that there were no casualties in the group.
“When we approached police in (the republican capital of) Kyzyl, officers refused to take our complaint”, the group head noted.
The tourists believe that you can run not only into single robbers in Tuva and the mountainous Altai Republic, but also into gangs of local residents who attack tourists. Robbers are armed, as a rule, including unregistered firearms.