JEDDAH, 7 February 2003 — A 38-year-old woman was knocked down and dragged behind a vehicle during a mugging here on Wednesday night.

The woman, a British citizen, was walking down Palestine Street from Jamjoom Center with a female co-worker when a passenger in a vehicle reached out and grabbed her handbag, which was strapped across her chest.

When the driver accelerated to make his getaway, the woman was dragged for five meters until the strap of her handbag finally snapped.

The acceleration was so severe that it left skid marks on the road.

The victim, who wanted to be known only as Susan, told Arab News minutes after the mugging as the police were arriving that the muggers got away with her handbag, which contained almost SR6,000, as well as her work identification card, her bank and credit cards and her mobile phone.

Abdullah Al-Doebi, 22, witnessed the incident and called the police. He then drove to a nearby coffee shop to alert the victim’s friends about what had happened.

“I heard the tires squealing,” he told Arab News. “I looked and saw the woman struggling to free herself from the car while being dragged. When her strap snapped she hit the ground pretty hard. I thought the car hit her and that her abaya was jammed in the car. By the time I did a U-turn to come to her help, the 4x4 was gone and she was on the ground being held by another woman.”

This reporter happened to be on the scene and witnessed the efforts of onlookers and the ensuing police investigation.

“I can’t move or feel my legs,” Susan told Arab News at the scene, as she began to cry.

Workers from the Olives Restaurant brought out water for the victim to drink. Susan began to slip in and out of consciousness. At one point, her friend, Jane, an Australian citizen, said: “I don’t think she’s breathing.”

First Aid efforts by witnesses at the scene kept the woman from totally losing consciousness and going into shock.

Police arrived with lights flashing and sirens blaring in less than four minutes, and an ambulance was dispatched from the Red Crescent Society.

Police immediately began an area check for the assailant’s vehicle, but it was not found.

“We are doing the best we can to locate the assailants,” Lieutenant Shamer Al-Joain told Arab News, “but it’s going to be difficult because the vehicle description is so vague. No one was able to obtain a license plate number, or the make or model or true color.”

Jane told Arab News: “The driver and passenger both looked like Arabs dressed in Western clothes. They were in their early 20’s and were driving a late model, dark-colored 4x4, which had a Z-shaped yellow stripe on the side. It all happened so quickly that I didn’t get a chance to get the license number, which would have been in Arabic anyhow.”

Susan spoke to Arab News yesterday. “I have lived in Saudi Arabia for 10 years and have always felt safe here. This is the first time something like this has happened to me. I hear of these things happening a lot at home in the UK, but not here.

“I was examined by the physicians at our hospital and apart from a few scrapes and bruises I’m fine,” she said. “I guess I’m quite lucky. This could have been far worse. I am trying not to let this affect me or change my perceptions of life in Saudi Arabia. I think this was just a one-off, random attack.”