Foreign Office warns of violent attacks in Algarve

The Foreign Office is warning holidaymakers of the dangers of violent attacks in the Algarve following the death of a British tourist in the popular resort of Albufeira.

Fifty-year-old Ian Haggarth from Gateshead in Tyneside died last week after being beaten by four youths. His death follows an attack of an Irish man in the same resort last month.

The Foreign Office has updated its travel advice for the Algarve to warn that street crime in the region can occasionally turn violent.

The two men were attacked in the notorious Montechoro neighbourhood of Albufeira. Mr Haggarth was set upon by a gang in the early hours of the morning on May 15, near the three-star Janelas do Mar hotel where he was staying. He was robbed, beaten and left unconscious. He died last Wednesday in hospital.

A spokesman for the Foreign Office said this morning it had made "a very minor" change to its travel advice to alert holidaymakers about street crime in the Algarve.

With permission from Travelmole

the man that died was staying in my hotel his mate told us the story at breakfast the morning after the attack on the first night my girl friend and i were walking from the hotel to the strip where i was approached by 5 youths all were drunk and wanted to fight me i usedtaxis after that pleasedi did

It's very worrying and extremely sad.

Anybody living in The Algarve know if the police have managed to find the youths responsible yet?

I knew Ian but had lost touch and hadn't seen him for a couple of years.
He was a lovely quiet lad and certainly wouldn't have been loud, disrespectful or looking for trouble.

RIP

Another place off my places to go list!

ujpest doza wrote:

Anybody living in The Algarve know if the police have managed to find the youths responsible yet?

I knew Ian but had lost touch and hadn't seen him for a couple of years.
He was a lovely quiet lad and certainly wouldn't have been loud, disrespectful or looking for trouble.

RIP

It's very sad isn't it it seems hard to get information about this TBH. Threads on TA to do with this type of thing is shut down for some reason. i'm not sure but wonder if there are some on there who have vested interests in keeping tourists travelling to the Algarve so there is a kind of veil of silence and threads drop off the page.

Doe

It's not stopping. Do not come to the Algarve. Go to Greece or Italy or Turkey.

http://www.algarveresident.com/0-44363/algarve/families-assaulted-and-robbed-at-home

But is there anywhere in the world where this sort of thing doesn't ever happen at all? Given the total number of visitors and residents in the Algarve what sort of statistical risk do these reported incidents represent? I know that that is no consolation if you happen to be the 1 in a 10,000 or whatever person that this happens to but if I let reports like this put me off completely from going somewhere, I'd have moved house by now, because we had a similar incident when burglars were surprised by a couple in their home in my little seaside town not that long ago but I actually feel very safe here because overall crime levels are low and I doubt whether I would actually be able to find somewhere were this sort of thing never happened.

Also, I'd never go back and visit my parents in Liverpool, never go for a night out with friends in Edinburgh or Glasgow and certainly never take another long weekend in London. But I don't want to be a hermit living in a self-imposed prison being too frightened to step outside my own front door. Yes, I take sensible precautions - always get a taxi home when out on my own etc - but I think that one always has to remember just how many more people these sort of things don't happen to whenever incidents like this get reported in the media.

SM

I'm assuming cubsur is being ironic/sarcastic as the reality is this could happen anywhere and i'd say The Algarve is much safer than a lot of other tourist destinations in the world, such as those mentioned by Sma eg London in particular.

I also think it is all relative to what you have experienced in other places as well and how you feel in yourself.

I constanly see people saying they would never come to London, but having lived and worked here for the best part of 60 years and never seen any incidents or been involved in them I don't give it a second thought. I would feel safer wandering around Leicester Square and Theatre Land than many other places in the world that are much quieter, due to sheer volume of people around and that you can always get help, wander into somewhere such as a coffee shop that is open at all times of the day and night. Quiet places and dark alleys frighten me more. I probably wouldn't feel safe in Manchester, Newcastle, Liverpool, Glasgow etc even though I was perfectly safe if that makes sense, it's the lack of familiarity that does it for many people.

There are loads of other lovely places in the Algarve apart from Albuferia. I don't suppose this helps much though in finding the answer to ujpest dozas question as to if they have caught the person who killed the poor guy?

I've done a bit of research about attacks using Portuguese sources and have come to two conclusions.

1. the chances of being a victim of serious crime in the Algarve are very, very low

2. the chances of such a crime being properly investigated are even lower!